ILMINSTER NEWS: Good news and bad news for Council Taxpayers

A BID to slash Ilminster Town Council’s share of the Council Tax failed on Tuesday (January 17, 2017) night – but councillors still voted in favour of making sure that Band D households would not have to fork out anything extra.

Councillors agreed at their monthly Ilminster Town Council meeting that the expenditure budget for 2017-18 would be £320,680.30 and met from a £293,720 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 – the same as in 2016-17 which had been a whopping 20 per cent rise from the 2015-16 figure of £120.83.

The actual precept – the amount of money the council will receive from the overall Council Tax – has gone up by one per cent because of the number of extra houses which have been built in Ilminster during the past 12 months.

Cllr Stuart Shepherd had earlier proposed – but later withdrew – a move to slash the precept to just £267,516 which would have meant a Band D charge of £132.28, equating to an 8.92 per cent (or £12.96) decrease to £132.28.

This suggestion had been vigorously supported by Cllrs Don Kinder and Matt James.

But others did not think it would look good to the public if they saw the council go up 20 per cent one year and then down nine per cent the next.

“People will be thinking what are we doing if they see us increase it by 20 per cent one year and then take a huge sway back the other way,” said Cllr Roger Swann.

He said he was not in favour of “lurching up and then crashing back down” and would much prefer a more “even keel” approach.

Cllr Julie Fowler added: “We need to be prudent and I don’t think we will be doing the people of Ilminster justice if we want to provide them things in the coming year.”

But Cllr Kinder said that the council had to be “big enough to swallow the bullet’ while Cllr James said it would be a “disservice to the people if we just put the precept up because people might think it odd if we brought it down.”

Councillors voted 6-3 in favour of increasing the precept by one per cent to £293,720 for 2017-18 with the Band D charge of £145.24 staying the same from 2016-17.

Those who voted for the move were Cllrs Roger Swann, Stuart Shepherd, Ian MacKillop, Julie Fowler, Tony Walker and Philp Burton.

Those who voted against were Cllrs Andrew Shearman, Don Kinder and Matt James.

Somerset County Council takes the lion’s share of the Council Tax each year with South Somerset District Council, Avon and Somerset Police, the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, and the Somerset Rivers Authority will also receive some of the pot.

The overall Council Tax bill for 2016-17 in Ilminster for Band D properties was £1,637.30 as opposed to £1,550 in 2015-16.

It is not yet known what the final overall bill for 2017-18 will be which falls through people’s letter boxes in April.

The town council has a three-year strategic plan it will endeavour to achieve between now and 2010.

The projects include new toilets for the Wharf Lane Recreation Ground, developing a dog policy, looking at getting new land for the cemetery, protecting Herne Hill from nearby development, and looking at creating a neighbourhood plan.

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