The Tories’ budget has been, and continues to be, completely unsustainable.  They claim to balance the books, but it is only because in the past few years they’ve been lucky, and received one-off payments to the tune of several million pounds.  It’s the equivalent of you or I relying on lottery scratchcard wins to meet our bills.
This year is no different.  The Council made a claim to recover V.A.T. paid by every person in Medway when they were charged at a sports centre.  It was judged that this wasn’t right, and so the Council was able to recover £2.5 million pounds from the Government.  The Council argued that, as it was wrongly charged, it wasn’t the Government’s to keep, and, therefore, the money was given back.
However, if it’s not the Government’s money, it’s not the Council’s money either - it’s yours.  But the Tories have decided to use this money to prop up next year’s budget, as once again they have a gaping hole at the centre of their finances.
This is morally wrong - if people have been paying too much, they should get a refund.  It shouldn’t be squirreled away in the Tories’ back pocket so they can try and balance the books. 
The Labour Group believes that the money should be given back to you.  One option would be to freeze prices at leisure centres, but even then, many people wouldn’t get a refund.
That’s why we proposed using this cash to limit the Council Tax rise to 1%.  We feel that this is the most equitable way of redistributing the money to residents, and recognises that, in these economically difficult times, people would appreciate lower Council Tax bills.
This proposal would have meant that your Council tax would only have risen by around 25p a week.  But the Tories preferred to spend it on their pet projects.  The Tories always claim to be the low tax party, yet they have deliberately chosen to increase Council Tax as much as possible, leaving residents substantially out of pocket.