ILMINSTER NEWS: Town council’s increase in Council Tax really is peanuts

ILMINSTER Town Council has agreed to put up its slice of the 2018-19 Council Tax bill by 7.5 per cent which works out at just an extra 91p a month – less than the cost of a packet of dry roasted peanuts.

Members of the council met on Tuesday (January 16, 2018) night to discuss what is, arguably, the most important decision of the year – the annual budget.

Councillors voted in support to increase the expenditure budget for 2018-19 to £339,577.28 from a £319,312.28 precept.

It means that households in the average Band D bracket of the Council Tax will have to pay £156.13 for Ilminster Town Council – a 7.5 per cent increase from the £145.24 2017-18 figure or, in monetary terms, an extra £10.89 this year. The 2016-17 precept from the town council was also £145.24.

A proposal to increase Ilminster’s precept even higher to ten per cent failed, while not everyone was in favour of increasing it at all.

But it was said that although nobody likes increasing bills and 7.5 per cent sounded a lot – the actual amount of just 91p a month should be taken into context.

Our investigations show that 91p is just less than what it would be to buy ONE 200g packet of dry roasted peanuts from Tesco, costing 99p.

Ilminster Town Council’s slice of the Council Tax pie is only a small one.

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 2017-18 in Ilminster for Band D properties was £1,690.89. In 2016-17 it was £1,637.30 as opposed to £1,550 in 2015-16.

It is not yet known what the final overall bill for 2018-19 will be which falls through people’s letters boxes in April. South Somerset District Council will not be setting its budget for the new financial year until it meets in February.

Ilminster Town Council clerk Joy Norris told councillors that budget setting was about predicting for the future and much had to be done on “common sense, gut instinct and local knowledge” and added that anyone with a “crystal ball” would be welcome.

Cllr Matt James, who was against putting the council’s precept up, warned that people would see “percentages rather than money” and that they would not be impressed by a 7.5 per cent increase.

But councillors argued that if they did not increase their share of the Council Tax then they would not be able to move forward with projects in the town.

The Mayor, Cllr Val Keitch, said: “It would be very nice and in an ideal world if we did not have to put the Council Tax up. But we need to be aware about not putting it up or not putting it up enough.

“I know that people aren’t getting pay rises, but everything else is going up.

“If we don’t want to put the bill up, we won’t be able to do the things we want here in Ilminster.”

Cllr Philip Burton added: “If we tell people what we are going to spend the money on and people are made aware, I think they will understand.”

But Cllr James said that he could not understand, however, why the council puts money into the budget for a specific project, but it does not get spent, and yet the following year more money is budgeted for the same project.

The 7.5 per cent increase was proposed by Cllr Ian McKillop who said the council needed to show the public that “it was not wasting money and improving the town where we can.”

“We just need to deliver,” he said.

Town clerk Joy Norris added that the council would need to look at increasing revenue streams for the authority as it relied “very heavily” on the Council Tax precept.

The council’s strategic plan has listed a number of projects for 2018-19 including improving the visual impact of the approach roads to the town, investigating the setting up of a Community Land Trust, coach parking to bring people into the town, and looking at public transport provision.

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