Councillors to meet next week to set budget

Town councillors will meet next week to set their annual budget and council tax precept request for 25/26.

At a special meeting next week, town councillors will be asked to support an increase to the town precept of between 8% and 13% - collecting from you at least £965,000 for the upcoming financial year.

The rise depends on how much town councillors vote to cut from the third draft budget.

The Town Council's Responsible Finance Officer (RFO) has outlined two options.

Option 1 - 3rd Draft Budget

This option would see a total precept of £1,012,202 as we reported here. This includes the increase put into the budget by the Services Committee for the Woodland Way Play Park project.

This option would equate to a 13% increase or £26.02 per annum for a Band D property.

Option 2 - Reductions in budget

This option would see a total precept of £969,202. This would result in a cuts of £50,000 from the Woodland Way Play Park project and £6,000 from cleaning. This would see an additional £20,000 put into the Council's Major Refurbishment Fund, which was cut by town councillors at their meeting in November.

This option would equate to a 8.2% increase or around £16 per annum for a Band D property.

At the meeting, the RFO will present a comprehensive report outlining the financial landscape and the challenging decisions ahead.

The Town Council's reserves strategy aims for general reserves equal to 2 to 3 months' expenditure. However, the current year's council tax rise was offset by using reserves to the point where they cannot be used again to subsidse an increase.

The meeting papers also reveal an email sent to the Town Council from a member of the public, urging the town council to keep the £50,000 budgeted for the Woodland Way Play Park.