Grindleford Parish Council Precept
There is an article in the latest Grindleford News, which goes on line today, asking residents for views about the level at which the 2021-22 Parish Council Precept should be set. As the decision has to be taken at the next Parish Council meeting on Thursday evening, the Council Chair has asked for an alert in this newsletter as it would be very helpful to get a full range of opinions.
Please do let them have your thoughts even if they are ‘don’t mind’ – this is an important issue which will affect the village for some years to come.
What they would like your thoughts on
Every Parish Council receives a precept from the County Council each year to fund its activities. The precept is raised as part of your Council tax. At present, Grindleford’s precept covers annual Parish Council expenditure (insurance, bus shelter cleaning, upkeep of Jubilee Gardens etc) with only a small margin left over. A band D household in Grindleford currently pays just over £16 a year.
In thinking about their budget for the year ahead, Parish Councillors have become conscious that they set a low precept relative to many (but not all) neighbouring villages. A higher precept would allow them to be more active and able to fund more projects in the community.
In practice:
A 25% rise would mean an annual increase for a Band D property of £4.13 a year which would generate an additional £1,750 a year for village projects;
an 50% rise would mean an annual increase for a Band D property of £8.25 a year, which would generate an additional £3,500 to support village projects.
(Each % rise would cost about 16p. For a Band C house, multiply by 8 and divide by 9.)
At the Council meeting on 10 December, the majority view was that they should look seriously at a significant increase, before making a decision at the January meeting. Councillors would welcome any views that people have before coming to a decision.
The Council is keenly mindful that a rise in Council tax in this Covid year is something which needs to be approached with caution and sensitivity. Other local government bodies such as DDDC (with much bigger budgets of course) are aiming to keep any increase low this year. The balance is between protecting household budgets, if only by a small amount (between about £4 and £8 per household), at this difficult time, against providing support for much needed village projects, for example the proposed playground upgrade.
Many Parish Councils of our population size have higher precepts because they have responsibility for playgrounds, sports facilities etc. In Grindleford these are looked after by voluntary organisations. One of the issues is whether Grindleford should take advantage of this to keep the precept low, relying on local donations, or raise the precept a little to support the voluntary groups.
If the majority view is to leave the precept as it is, then the Council will reflect that in the decision they make on 14 January.
The precept will be considered again in January 2022.
Questions you might like to answer are:
- Are you content for the Parish Council to raise the precept to support village projects such as the playground upgrade?
- How much should they raise the precept by – for example £4.13 for the year, to raise £1750, or £8.25 for the year, to raise £3,500? Or leave the precept broadly the same?
- Do you agree that this additional money should form a funding pot for village projects?
Please email grindleparish@gmail.com with the title ‘PRECEPT’ by 5 pm this Thursday 2021 at the latest, or you can Whatsapp the Grindleford Ramblings group if you are on it (ask Sarah if you want to join).
Thanks for your interest.