COUNCIL tax should be raised by an average of more than £60 a year to stop cuts to disability services, the Green Party has said.

The party’s leader on Oxfordshire County Council, David Williams, said the five per cent rise would bring in £8.1 million a year and could reverse £6.1 million of cuts to adult social care proposed in the council’s draft budget.

It contrasts with the Conservative administration’s proposal to only raise council tax by 1.99 per cent in the 2015/16 financial year, which begins in April.

The Green Party plans would mean a band D council taxpayer, the band most people fall in to, would pay an extra £60.42 a year, the equivalent of £1.16 a week.

This would bring their total bill to £1,268.83 a year.

But such a move would trigger a referendum because councils are bound by law to hold a vote if they raise tax by two per cent or more.

Mr Williams said he believed the public would back a rise to pay for disability services.

He said: “The council is trying to avoid a referendum by saying they would only raise it 1.99 per cent, but they will have to come to the conclusion that services cannot be supported by small rises.

“I think people would back that in a referendum, it is not a great deal of increase.

“If you say thousands of people are going to suffer and we have to plug the gap, then I think we could make a very strong case.”

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Mr Williams said the other £2 million raised would be spent on things like protecting children’s centres, which are set to lose £1 million in funding in 2015/16.

The county council’s draft budget, which was published in December, will be voted on on February 17.

Oxford-based learning disability charity My Life My Choice receives county council funding and could be affected by the cuts.

Charity co-ordinator Brian Michell said: “I accept it is going to be difficult with these cuts because it is hard for them to find money for everything.

“I am not sure how council tax payers would feel about paying out for some things and not others.

“Generally though people are very supportive of us.”

County council leader Ian Hudspeth said a referendum would be costly.

He said: “When you talk to people they say they would be happy to have an increase to have extra funding.

“When it comes down to it and you ask people ‘do you want an increase?’ people in Oxfordshire would be likely to reject that in a referendum.

“It would likely cost about £600,000. I would rather put funding for a referendum into services.”

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