Finance chief hits out at Council Tax ‘bogus claim

Salford’s finance chief Cllr Bill Hinds has described a promise that Council Tax will be halved if people vote ‘Yes’ in Thursday’s referendum for a directly-elected Mayor as “a complete lie”.

He said: “The referendum is about how Salford should be run. The level of Council Tax has nothing to do with the constitution of the Council which is the only thing affected by the referendum.

“The promise that a Yes vote will mean Council Tax being halved is a completely bogus claim which most people will take with a pinch of salt.

“This referendum is about whether we vote ‘Yes’ so the city is run by a £100,000 a year dictator or we vote ‘No’ to that and save our traditional impartial Mayor.”

Cllr Hinds said that people did not believe the tax could be halved because many of the cuts promised by the ‘Yes’ campaign were impossible or unacceptable.

The Yes campaign had promised to illegally cut

Care for children at risk irrespective of need
Statutory planning duties
Even minimum highways repairs to keep roads safe
They had also promised to

Cut care for 6,000 vulnerable elderly people
Remove all school crossing patrols
End road safety schemes