Vix Lowthion shares this latest news on behalf of herself and councillors Deborah Matthews, Julie Jones-Evans. Ed
After an …interesting…. Newport budget meeting this week – an insight, into the exciting world of parish/ town/ community council budget setting. Disagreements, fear and missed opportunities.
As we head towards April, and newly printed Council Tax bills will land on our mats, we will likely open them with trepidation, nervous of the state of the rises. Facts, figures, percentages and lines of text will fill the sheet as demands keep rising, costs keep increasing and our pockets keep shrinking.
Voluntary roles
A word in defence of your parish or town council. They don’t get paid. They don’t get thanked. But councillors are likely spending weeks and weeks wading through how to best set their budget for the year which will provide the balance of keeping costs right down but also offering important services which everyone can benefit from.
Allotments? Toilets? Sports grounds? Youth centres? Community events? These are highly likely to be completely funded by your local council precept.
An average of £95 for the year
For Newport residents, that’s currently an average of £95. A year. That’s £1.83 per household, per week. This precept is entirely spent in Newport, our county town.
Our recent survey highlighted concerns about parking, green spaces, youth services, transport and clean, safe streets. Our community council, in our county town, has a unique position in having the power and opportunity to lead and draw in more funding partners – as Ryde have done in securing £20 million for their town.
What the money will be spent on
Fast forward to the meeting this week, and we proposed extra money for community events (£5,000 – an extra 1p a week), a subsidy for Newport car parks – reducing fees to £2.50 for 2 hours (costing 4p a week per household) and repairing a council car park in a terrible state (an extra 4p a week) amongst other things.
In total, the amendments added extra on our council tax bill of 25p a week, but would have added greater benefits for our local high street businesses and for residents who pay out huge amounts for car parking.
Objection raised
One councillor took up a significant portion of valuable meeting time objecting to him being ‘forced’ to vote ‘Against’ upping our much needed donation to support the great work of Newport Carnival – preferring to use the inaccurate term ‘lower’.
All of this upset and argument was over a proposed amount of £550 – a total extra per household of 6.5p A YEAR. The councillor eventually refused to vote (abstained). You will be able to hear the audio recording for yourself in time.
Costs risen by 61%
Finally, a budget was agreed by the majority. Yet we cannot help but know that the annual opportunity has been missed to properly fund the business of our community council for another year. These are difficult times for our councils.
Our costs have risen since 2022 by 61 per cent – but our income in the same period has only risen by 9.8 per cent.
Around £5 extra a year per household
But, forget about percentages – it’s the money in our pockets which counts. When the dreaded bill drops through our doors, the actual increase for Newport residents will be about a fiver. For an entire year.
But for a few quid more than that (pennies a week), we could have invested in services for residents to bring so much more value. We need to rise up to take all the opportunities available to town and parish councils – but to do this we need to envision a better future where our community thrives, not just survives.
Local town, parish and community councils can do great work. Why not pop along to see it for yourself at their next meeting – you could be pleasantly surprised!
