THE mayor of Copeland will this week announce the borough council’s fourth consecutive budget without any cuts to public services.

Council tax rises will be set below inflation, lower than neighbouring councils and the Police and Crime Commissioner.

Meanwhile, car parking charges across the borough will be frozen and the kerbside recycling service will continue despite central Government cuts.

The financial plans are part of Mayor Mike Starkie’s continuing mission to run the authority “like a modern 21st-century business”.

The budget is due to be formally presented on February 5, with a vote due to be taken on February 19.

Setting out his vision, Mayor Starkie said: “The fact that the organisation has in excess of 260 staff, an annual turnover in excess of £30m and provides services to nearly 70,000 residents means that the council is a business of some considerable size and should operate like any other business of that scale would.

“We have made huge progress against this objective and, as a result, the council is in far better shape than it has ever been.  It is leaner and, in the current financial climate with central government funding to local authorities significantly reduced and soon to disappear altogether, it has to be.

“Instead of perpetually complaining about what we no longer have, we have instead focussed on extracting maximum value from what we do have – and that is exactly what we are doing.”

The major has pledged to keep as a “key priority” support for the community’s “most vulnerable people” by continuing social programmes to create opportunities.

The council has seen a complete overhaul since the mayor was elected in 2015, including the employment of more council staff in place of consultants.

Mayor Starkie added: “This brings to an end a long-term culture of a stream of highly-paid consultants that takes away consistency of approach, ending up with the constant cycle that we have seen in areas such as finance, which just lurched from one crisis to another.”