Grapevine

Forum breadcrumbs - You are here:GrapevinePrecept Consultation for Financia …
Please or Register to create posts and topics.

Precept Consultation for Financial Year 2022/23

Your Community Council is again in the process of setting the budget for the next financial year which is paid for through your Council Tax. This charge within your Council Tax is known as the precept. As the local level of governance for your area, the Spooner Row Community Council must inform South Norfolk Council what level we wish to set our precept at for the next financial year by mid-January 2022. This precept will be paid to the Spooner Row Community Council in the financial year starting from 1st April 2022. 

At our last council meeting, held on Thursday 25th November 2021, we discussed a plan for setting the precept. As the Community Council does not meet in December, we will be finalising the Spooner Row precept at our next Council meeting to be held on Thursday 13th January 2022, to which you are all welcome to attend and put your perspective across.

The Proposal

To freeze the Spooner Row precept at £71.07, the same level per household as Financial Year 2021/2022, to produce an income of £21,747.42.

Background

The detail and calculations on how the Community Council plan to set the precept is laid out below. To put the figures above into context, last financial year Wymondham Town Council set their precept at £91.94, so your Community Council is continuing to deliver you more and at a 22.5% reduction over what you would have paid.

Annual Running Costs

Based on analysis of our monthly spend since the Community Council formed in May 2019, our annual running costs total approximately £9,112.38, as broken down in the following table. I have included the budget for Financial Year 2021/2022 for comparison.

Annual Operating Budget

Project Budget

As a council, we previously agreed in January 2020 that we needed to budget for both our running costs and also provision for future projects.  To allow us to meet our objectives of [Growing Community Spirit], [Preserve Rural Nature] and [Increase Safety & Security] we need to invest in projects across our three villages.  As previously briefed to Council, the indicative costs for some larger projects like the purchase of land (3.5 acres), or the provision of a 500m trod path along Station Road would cost approximately £35-40,000 per project. The Council is forecasting to have a circa £90,000 cash balance remaining at the end of FY21/22, an increase of £16,000 over the year. This has been placed in a reserve to allow up to 2 x Major Projects to be delivered without raising further resource from the precept; there are a number of projects that the Council are working towards delivery of over the next 2 years.

The following table depicts the extant annual budget cycle to provide for 1 x Major (c.£40,000) and 2 x Medium (c.£3,000) projects every 4 years; it was agreed when setting the FY21/22 budget to no longer raise money for Small (c.£1,000) projects from the precept.  The annual cost to provision funds for this aspirational level of future investment in our community, would require an annual project budget of £11,500. 

Annual Project Budget

The difference between the total budget £20,612.38 (Annual Running Costs of £9,112.38 and the Project Budget of £11,500) and the proposed Financial Year Precept of £21,747.42 will be used as a contingency fund for any increased unbudgeted costs.

Encouraging to see that local capital projects are planned, and that the precept does not need to be raised to cover them. A good illustration of the benefits of having an independent local Council

Thank you to all those who provided comments on the Spooner Row Community Council precept proposal.  At our meeting on Thursday 13th January 2022 the Council voted in favour of a further reduction in the precept for Financial Year 2022‑2023 to £36.68 per household.

 

With £93,000 in reserves and annual running costs of circa £9,000, it was agreed that until more major projects are delivered within our community, then the precept should be reduced.  We hope that you agree that you have witnessed more of your precept being spent within our community. Once more major projects come to fruition over the next 12-24 months, which will reduce the current reserve, there may be a requirement to raise the precept in future years, but likely only back to the levels set in Financial Year 2021/2022.

 

To put this reduction into perspective, when we formed our Community Council in May 2019, the precept set by Wymondham Town Council for our first year was £88.40. The difference between the level of precept required to provide services in a town environment vice our rural community is reflected in the precept comparison table below covering the last 3 Financial Years.

Financial Year

Wymondham Town Council

Spooner Row Community Council

2019/2020

£88.40

Annual Change

£88.40

Annual Change

2020/2021

£91.94

4% Increase

£71.22

19.5% Decrease

2021/2022

£95.53

3.9% Increase

£68.66

3.6% Decrease

2022/2023

 

 

£36.68

46.6% Decrease

Cllr Stephen Ward

RFO

Spooner Row Community Council