THE new leader of Barnsley Council refused to rule out a council tax hike next year despite campaign leaflets suggesting they would freeze it and claimed they have found a ‘£30m black hole’.
Money raised through council tax is used to fund day-to-day services such as adult and children’s social care, rubbish collection, road maintenance, street lighting, and library services.
At yesterday’s full council meeting, the new Lib Dem leader in Barnsley Councillor David Greenhough asked the Reform council if they were planning to freeze council tax as they had campaigned upon that matter on their leaflets in the run-up to the election.
Leader of the council William Brown said: “My intention is to keep council tax as low as realistically possible.
“I understand how important it is for residents, especially with the cost of living pressures people are facing right now.
“There’s a strong case for keeping bills down but at the same time councils are under significant pressure and financial strain.
“Any decision has to be balanced it’s not simply a choice between raising tax or not raising tax.
“It’s about protecting services.”
Coun Greenhough then showed the meeting a leaflet which said that Reform would freeze council tax, with deputy leader Edward Dillingham name on it.
Coun Brown then claimed Reform have found a ‘black hole’ and added: “It is right that we are judged on what we said at the time and that’s based on information that was available to us at the time.
“Since opening the books, we’ve already discovered a black hole of over £30m left by the Labour group.
“That’s the reality of what we’re dealing with now.
“Ignoring that wouldn’t be responsible.
“The opposition can play politics with it but our focus will be the right thing protecting services while keeping council tax as low as possible.”
There were audible laughs from the chamber after he said this.
Councillor Brown said: “It was extremely disappointing to see the Labour members responding with laughter about the fact they left a £30m black hole in the budget.”
Coun Greenhough told the Chronicle that it took just 34 minutes for Reform to ‘backtrack’ on their promises.
He said: “It’s disappointing that the Reform leadership decided to lie to the public by promising to freeze council tax, and are now lying to the public about ‘discovering a black hole’.
“The books of the council have always been open, and the budget shortfalls have been covered by the Chronicle many times.
“The thing Reform have now discovered is scrutiny and all it has taken is 34 minutes for them to backtrack on promises made to the public.”
Labour leader James Higginbottom said it is ‘frankly disingenuous’ to claim that there was a financial black hole left by the previous administration.
He told the Chronicle: “Councils are not legally able to carry a black hole in their finances.
“They have a legal duty to set a balanced budget which was set by the Labour administration in February 2026 and validated by external auditors.
“Under Labour, Barnsley have always set balanced budgets and maintained a strong reputation for sound financial management.
“These claims do a grave disservice to our hard-working finance team, ably led by Neil Copley, and to many years of hard work, financial prudence and sustained investment that have transformed our town.
“Like every council, there are future cost pressures that will have to be managed in coming years it is down to Reform to bring forward a plan for how they intend to maintain Barnsley’s strong financial position over the next four years.”
