Council taxpayers across the South East are facing increases in their bills again this year.

Surrey County Council approved a 4.99% rise, East Sussex agreed a 1.99% hike, while West Sussex has proposed a 2.99%.

Meanwhile, Kent County Council voted through a rise of 2.99% which opposition councillors said was like treating people “like cash machines”.

Surrey county councillors have voted through a 4.99% council tax rise, which will see a Band D household pay an extra £77.31 for the year.
However, calls to use some of its £150m reserves to spend more on public health and spare residents the extra cost were rejected, according to the BBC’s Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Many opposition councillors backed a proposal by Green councillor Jonathan Essex to use about £26m (17%) of the council’s reserves.
This included an £8m spend to deliver a child poverty strategy, reverse the reduced number of children’s centres and support preventative health.

However, it was voted down by 43 members and supported by just 31.
Council leader Tim Oliver said the amendment was “bordering on the irresponsible” and the council’s reserves were “not excessive”.

The council tax rise is made up of:

• 0.99% increase to fund the increased cost of delivering services
• 3% increase to fund additional spend in adult and children’s social care
• 1% increase to fund additional investment in mental health

Councillor Oliver said: “We recognise that household budgets are feeling the squeeze just like ours – that any further increase for many people is unpalatable – but we’re deciding to tackle the root causes of hardship and inequality.
“For those that need financial help now, who are facing crisis point, we will actively support them.”

West Sussex County Council’s portion of the 2022/23 council tax is set to rise by 2.99% – an increase of more than £45 on a Band D bill.

The increase was supported during a meeting of the cabinet on 1 February.
Made up of a 1.99% core increase and a one per cent precept for adult social care, the rise would see Band D bills rise from £1,510.56 to £1,555.74.

The budget was due to go before the full council on 18 February, but the meeting was cancelled because of Storm Eunice.

The full council will now meet on 28 February.

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Seven guns were returned to users in Sussex last year who had previously had their licence revoked.

An investigation by the BBC had found across the country a quarter of licences returned between 2019 and 2021 went to people who had faced allegations of domestic abuse.

Women’s Aid says the figures show an ‘inexcusable tolerance’ of abusers.

Ms Nazeer for the charity said this needed to be investigated by police and the government, and called for an “automatic ban on returning gun licenses to those accused of domestic abuse”.

“Would society accept guns being put back in the hands of burglars? Of muggers? In cases of domestic abuse, more often than not, the perpetrator lives in the same residence as the survivor,” she said.

“Even if the perpetrator hasn’t ever used the gun against their partner, just possessing the weapon, its presence in the house, is a form of intimidation and control.”

41 of the 44 police forces in the UK that responded to a Freedom of Information request revealed 164 firearms licences were returned between 2019 and 2021.

Of those, 43 were given back to people who had been accused of domestic violence. It is not known how many were later found guilty of an offence.

Of the 164 returned licences, police forces say the individuals either did not meet the threshold for prosecution or if they were charged, the charges were later dropped.

Data from the Office for National Statistics for 2021 highlights that only 18% of domestic violence victims report what happened to police.

Last year, a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) into domestic abuse against women said police forces were not “giving the threat of violence the resources it deserved.”

A National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman said: “Any individual who held a firearms licence, which was then revoked, would need to reapply for a new licence.

“The legal process for anyone seeking a new licence is explicitly defined, and domestic abuse is one of the most serious factors taken into consideration in assessing an application.”

The Metropolitan Police, the UKs largest force covering a population of about nine million people, returned 15 previously revoked gun licences in 2020/21.

It said six of these were returned because the licence holder successfully appealed their original decision to revoke in court.

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An immigration detainee, who was put in a choke hold by a custody officer, has told a public inquiry he felt animals at a zoo were better treated.

An ongoing inquiry into Brook House removal centre, near Gatwick Airport, is examining the mistreatment of detainees, as well as the attitudes and culture of staff.

It follows a series of investigations triggered by BBC Panorama in 2017.

In a statement the detainee said he believed the officer would kill him.

The choking incident in 2017 followed an attempted suicide by a detainee, given the code name D1527 at the inquiry.

He had a history of mental health problems and he had been trying to strangle himself in a cell.

While dealing with the incident one of the centre’s custody officers, Yan Paschali, held him down by his neck.

“I thought I was going to die, that the man doing this to me was going to kill me,” D1527 told the inquiry in a statement.

“I don’t think the force was reasonable in that situation.

“You’re in a crisis and you need someone to get you down from that crisis but the officers don’t do that, they use force they bend you and squeeze you.

“They make you feel more pain. I felt like animals at zoo were treated better than I was.”

Mr Paschali claimed in his statement that he and the detainee had shaken hands and smoked a cigarette together.

“This is a lie,” D1527’s statement said.

At the time of the incidents G4S ran the immigration centre, it was taken over by Serco in 2020.

The inquiry heard a series of statements from detained men with mental health conditions.

An Afghan man diagnosed with PTSD and depression tried to suffocate himself with a bag.

A Pakistani man said he still had nightmares about Brook House after being verbally and physically mistreated.

An Iranian Christian who left for Europe having suffered religious persecution said detention made his mental health much worse.

At one point he stopped eating and sewed his lips together, the inquiry heard.

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