Hackney residents are being invited to comment online on the Mayor of Hackney's 2010/11 budget proposals, including a 'record-breaking fifth Council Tax freeze with no cuts to frontline services', in the words of the Council. N16mag.com has little comment to make at this point until we can get our hands on more detailed information, and what follows below is largely the Council's press release.

Form your own opinions and let us know your feelings on this on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Incidentally, what's happened to all the expenditure on the Olympics, and also there does not seem much mention of poverty, homelessness, cutting back on money available to many charities, and drug and alcohol addiction, and other social problems the alleviation of which, should be provided for in the budget? Still, things have certainly improved over the last ten or so years - remember the Borough nearly went bust quite recently. And Hackney can be a tough place in which to live, and probably not very easy to keep financially afloat. However, they're sweeping the town centres twice daily, so we shouldn't be too harsh...

'Eighteen million pounds has been earmarked for keeping the borough clean, this would pay for town centres swept twice daily; and residential streets swept twice daily; maintenance of over 10,700 street lights; plus more than three million household recycling and 8.5million household waste collections.

 'Training and activities for children and young people would receive £68million, which can fund a number of activities including music, dance, drama and sport through local clubs or after school programmes, also information and advice on education and employment, along with Youth Offending Team support for 1,300 young people; placing 130 children with foster carers; and providing care packages for 130 disabled children.

 'It is proposed to spend £25million on public safety, by working with the police and partners to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. This is expected to fund around 17,000 visits to tackle noise nuisance; enforcement action against litter louts and illegal street traders; 27,000 hours of CCTV; 6,000 food hygiene inspections; and 5,000 building control inspections, licence applications, and enforcement.

'Nearly £18million is earmarked for culture and leisure, with £8.1million for Hackney's eight libraries and archives service. A total of £5.5million would be spent on maintaining 330 hectares of parks and open spaces, while £4.3million is proposed for sports and leisure, and developing activities that help improve residents' health.

 'Mayor Pipe said: 'The Council is on the side of residents through difficult economic times - if my proposals are adopted we will be the only authority in the country to have frozen our share of the Council Tax for so many successive years. I believe it is our job to improve residents' quality of life and make the borough a better place to live and work. It has cost more to expand services as we have done, but this was not passed on to taxpayers due to over £40million of efficiency savings the Council has made.'

 'The budget proposals will be debated by full Council on 3 March, and once approved (should this not be 'if approved', Ed), come into effect from 1 April.

Find out more by visiting http://www.hackney.gov.uk/council-tax-freeze.htm until 31 January.'