Council tax paid by residents for services provided by Chesterfield Borough Council has been frozen for another year.

The unanimous vote was taken at the council meeting on Thursday 26 February.

Councillor John Burrows, Chesterfield Borough Council’s Leader, said: “Despite the fact we are, again, facing a huge cut in the funding we receive from the government, we have frozen council tax again to help families in the borough who are doing their best to make ends meet in these difficult economic times.

Councillors also voted to accept the council’s proposed budget for the coming year.

Although Chesterfield Borough Council collects council tax, it only keeps 10 per cent of the money.

For the average band A property, this means the council keeps only £96.59 each year or £1.86 each week of the money collected to fund its services including: refuse collection, street cleaning, sports and park facilities, regeneration, housing, markets, museums, theatres and tourism.

The rest of the money goes to different authorities including Derbyshire County Council, Derbyshire Constabulary and Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Each of these authorities has chosen to increase its portion of council tax by just under two per cent. This means that although the amount residents pay towards services provided by Chesterfield Borough Council will remain the same, the overall amount they pay will increase.

Residents are invited to share their views at the latest round of Chesterfield Borough Council’s Community Assembly meetings.

Held four times each year, the meetings allow people to receive information and ask questions about projects led by the council and other partners that will affect them and their families.

On the agenda at the March meetings include: updates from the council’s scrutiny committee and Chesterfield College as well as a presentation from Derbyshire County Council’s public health team.

Derbyshire’s police and crime commissioner, Alan Charles, will attend the North, South and West Community Assembly meetings to give a presentation on Derbyshire’s police and crime plan.

The East Community Assembly meeting will feature a presentation on crime reduction by Derbyshire Constabulary.

Residents at the South, West and East meetings will also have the opportunity to vote on which good causes in their area can receive funding of up to £200 as part of the council’s minor grants scheme.

Councillor Sharon Blank, Chesterfield Borough Council’s Executive Member for Customers and Communities said: “I’d encourage anyone with an interest in their local area to come along to our Community Assembly meetings.

“This is their opportunity to find out what is happening in their area and to ask questions of the council and other partners.”

The meetings will take place at the following dates:

• Chesterfield North: Wednesday 4 March, St Hugh’s Church, Littlemoor
• Chesterfield South: Thursday 5 March, Town Hall, Rose Hill
• Chesterfield West: Tuesday 10 March, Town Hall, Rose Hill
• Chesterfield East: Wednesday 11 March, Staveley Miners’ Welfare, Market Street, Staveley

Each meeting will begin at 6.30pm and finish at 8.30pm and there will be a local councillors’ surgery after each meeting.

Healthwatch Derbyshire will also attend the North and East Community Assembly meetings from 6pm to ask residents about their experiences of health and social care in the county.

Plans are being put forward for a series of ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) sites – better known as solar farms – to be built on currently-unused land owned by Derbyshire County Council. This includes former colliery or underused agricultural land unsuitable for growing crops.

Initial investigations have identified the following sites for potential development:

• agricultural land at Swathwick Lane, Swathwick, Wingerworth
• Westthorpe Hills, former Westthorpe Colliery
• land at Pye Bridge, Alfreton
• former Swanwick Colliery reclamation land
• agricultural land at Mansfield Road, Temple Normanton
• former Williamthorpe Colliery

It is expected that an energy supplier would pay Derbyshire County Council for each unit of electricity produced by the panels, with extra payments being made if the electricity is then exported to the National Grid.

The project, which is being put forward in partnership with the Association for Public Sector Excellence (APSE) − an organisation that supports local authorities to deliver energy schemes − is in its early stages.

Further feasibility studies would still need to be carried out. If any of the sites get the go-ahead they could be up and running by March 2016.

But before any of the locations can be considered further, local residents are to be asked their views.

Next week (Tuesday 3 March), Cabinet will be asked to approve plans to consult on the initiative. If agreed, details of the consultation will be announced shortly.

Councillor John Owen, Deputy Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Infrastructure, said:

“These sites are not currently being put to their best use and turning them into solar panel farms could offer great potential to generate income for the council and so help protect services.

“Generally, these proposed sites are already screened off, in out of the way areas and in most cases are not overlooked. And largely they tend not to be of much environmental interest. In some cases they could provide a good opportunity to improve the local conservation.”

Councillor Owen added:

“We have made a public commitment in our Climate Change Charter to invest in renewable energy technologies to help reduce our negative impact on climate change and provide local, green sources of energy.”

A further £69 million is to be spent on improving local council houses.

Chesterfield Borough Council is on target to ensure that all of the 9,500 homes it owns and manages will meet the government’s Decent Homes standard by the end of March, and can now begin additional upgrades to properties.  The Decent Homes standard requires all houses to meet set criteria that ensure they are warm, protected from the weather and have modern facilities.

Additional work is scheduled to take place over the next three years to:

• Install cavity wall insulation and replace older central heating systems in homes.
• Replace roofs, old UPVC windows and install external wall insulation
• Improve the environments of some housing estates, including the London Boroughs estate in Barrow Hill in 2015/16 and the Holmehall estate in 2016/17, for example creating roads, garden space and better parking areas
• Construct four new build houses in Rufford Close, Boythorpe
• Buy selected properties on the open market which meet a housing need.

Councillor Jim McManus, Chesterfield Borough Council’s Executive Member for Housing, said:

“It is a real achievement to have got our council homes to the Government’s Decent Homes Standard and delivers on our promise to tenants.

“But we don’t want to stop there because we believe council homes are not second class. They should be every bit as good as the private sector can offer.

“The extra £69 million investment we are now making over the next three years will enable us to maintain the high standards we have already met and then go over and above them.”

The funding for the housing improvements is separate to normal day-to-day council spending and cannot be spent on any other council service.

Recent changes in the rules mean councils can borrow money to invest in housing, with repayments funded by the income received from council tenants.