ILMINSTER NEWS: Town council puts up precept by 20 per cent

ILMINSTER Town Council has agreed to increase its share of the Council Tax bill by 20 per cent – although that works out at just an extra 47p a week for Band D households.

Councillors agreed last Tuesday (January 19, 2016) that the expenditure budget for 2016-17 would be £329,920 and met from a £290,468 precept.

It means that households in the average Band D bracket of the Council Tax will have to fork out £145.24 for Ilminster Town Council – up £24.41 from the 2015-16 figure of £120.83.

Although the 20 per cent increase figure might seem a big hike, Ilminster councillors are hoping that local people will appreciate that the town council’s share of the Council Tax is just a tiny slice of the cake.

The 2015-16 overall Council Tax bill which landed through people’s letterboxes amounted to just over £1,550 for Band D households with Somerset County Council taking the lion’s share of the funds raised.

South Somerset District Council, Avon and Somerset Police and the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service will also receive some of the pot.

Ilminster Town Council’s clerk, Joy Norris, said that setting a budget for the next 12 months was never easy.

“It’s predicting the future based on common sense, gut instinct and local knowledge together with previous income and expenditure information.

“We will always look at the worst case scenario, while we also need to not just think about 2016-17 but looking at the future years as well. It is important to look at what might happen in the following year and the year after.”

Councillors did appear to be concerned about the future with less and less money seemingly filtering down to local government from Westminster and potential cuts having to be made at county and district council levels.

The Mayor, Cllr Rose Neave, said: “It is falling to the smaller parish councils to pick up the slack for the future.”

Cllr Philip Burton said: “We are a growing community and I think we need to get in the money now to maintain a good service and future-proof ourselves.”

And Cllr Andrew Shearman added: “We have to bear in mind that there will be cut backs at County Hall. We have got to think about that.”

A number of potential ideas about increasing revenue for the council were discussed such as increasing cemetery charges, introducing a hire fees for the council chamber and putting the kiosk at the Ilminster Recreation Ground on a commercial basis.

Figures suggest that the number of Band D properties in Ilminster has again increased during the past year.

In 2014-15 that figure was 1,888 and it went up to 1,913 in 2015-16, while it now stands at 1,999.

The council’s plans for 2016-17 include demolishing the football stand at Ilminster Recreation Ground, work at the cemetery, improving the council warden’s workshop area, putting money aside for a community plan and looking at taking on a full-time member of staff.

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