Recycling centre booking system to return as Hartlepool Borough Council reverses pledge to freeze council tax
Councillors have reversed a pledge to freeze council tax after unanimously agreeing to increase bills by nearly 2%.
A full Hartlepool Borough Council meeting finally agreed the authority’s 2026-27 budget on Tuesday evening.
Although core council tax has been frozen, a 1.98% increase will be implemented through the adult social care precept.
While this is the lowest rise in the North East, it follows pledges from the council’s Labour leadership during the current financial year that its 2026-27 bill would be frozen.
Council leader Councillor Pamela Hargreaves said the decision to implement the 1.98% rise is a “direct consequence of spiralling children’s social care costs” and helps keep “finances stable”.
The meeting saw Labour councillors recommend £1.58million in additional savings to balance the books on top of a previously suggested £4.272million of efficiencies.
New measures include reinstating the booking system at the Household Waste Recycling Centre, which will save an estimated £175,000, while the unscheduled highways maintenance revenue budget will be reduced by £500,000.
The appointments system was previously scrapped in September 2024.
Promotions including free Sunday parking in the town centre, “free after 3” in certain car parks and free parking on Saturdays in December will also be removed.
Cllr Hargreaves, speaking at the meeting, said the budget does “three vital things”.
She added: “It eases the pressures on working families by freezing core council tax, it protects vital services that matter to Hartlepool people and it upholds our moral duty to protect vulnerable children and adults.
“It is a difficult decision, and it is an honest one, it is an honest summation of where we are right now.”
She also highlighted the social care “crisis” facing Hartlepool and demands increasing further due to families being moved into the town from out of the borough.
Cllr Hargreaves added: “In the last six months alone 18 families have been moved here whose children now require social care input from us and that cost runs into millions of pounds and none of it is funded.”
A decision was initially due to be made at a full council meeting last month until a verdict was delayed to allow councillors to continue to lobby the Government for more funding and to meet with ministers.
Cllr Hargreaves explained they were “proud” to take a “cross party delegation” to London and “pleaded our case” although this was “dismissed”.
Councillor Mike Young, representing Reform UK, said they were in agreement the budget “does stack up” financially and it is “positive” the booking system at the Household Waste Recycling Centre is being reintroduced.
Cllr Hargreaves, speaking after the meeting, said: “We were clear that our ambition was to freeze both core council tax and the social care precept.
“However we were not able to freeze the social care precept and that is a direct consequence of spiralling children’s social care costs and a national funding system that does not properly reflect the pressures towns like Hartlepool face.”
Cllr Hargreaves added they will continue to keep fighting the Government for more funding for the borough and they can “do that better from inside” the Labour Party.
A total of £1.047million in reserves will also be used to balance the budget.