HARD-pressed Poole Council looks likely to be giving its tax payers a break this year – no council tax rise.

Despite the £14m pressures on its budget, Borough of Poole will be considering a freeze on council tax for 2011/12 – which last year rose by 2.9 per cent.

“We have decided that we will increase fees and charges at the point of a service delivery rather than trying to raise finance through more taxation,” said council leader, Cllr Elaine Atkinson.

And no council tax increase will be rewarded by government with a further £1.79m of funding – equivalent to 2.5 per cent on council tax.

While on average unitary authorities are funded half-and-half from government and council tax, Poole gets one-third of its funding from government and raises two-thirds from council tax.

And this year’s settlement is worse with only 30 per cent coming from government – last year it was 33 per cent. Most of that is raised from the council tax payer rather than the fee payer – a balance the council has sought to change. Despite that, Poole levies one of the lowest rates of council tax in the country.

“We have had to make hard decisions around the fees and charges,” said Cllr Atkinson. “Our priority is frontline services and putting the needs of our most vulnerable residents first.”

In a leaner council, jobs are under pressure, with currently 162 full-time equivalent posts likely to go. However retirement, not filling vacant posts and voluntary redundancies mean around 50 people are likely to face compulsory redundancy.

The £8.3m unearmarked reserves have also been eaten into for such things as redundancies and the Talbot Village enquiry, leaving £5.96m in the pot.

Facing a 14.2 per cent reduction in government funding in 2011/12 the council has to make savings and efficiencies of more than £14m on its budget and further savings of £13m will have to be made by 2013/14.

“What this budget delivers is financial equilibrium,” said Liz Wilkinson, head of financial services. What it can’t do is take all of the pain out of that. There’s pain in that and there will be in the next two years.”

Cabinet on February 8 will be asked to recommend to full council on March 1, a budget of £102m, compared to £98m last year. However government has changed the way it calculates the grant so last year’s sum would now be equivalent to £106m.

“In previous years we have been directed to do more for less,” said Cllr Atkinson. “This year we are being told to do less for less.”