At Monday’s meeting of the full Town Council (Monday 03 October) the level of the precept for the next financial year – April 2023 – 2024 came up for consideration – very early in the annual cycle. The year is only just halfway through but the cost of living crisis facing us all over coming months made the Town Council start the process far earlier than normal.
This discussion was preceded by discussion over a report prepared by Councillor Cleasby relating to the cost of living crisis, particularly in relation to the role the Town Council might take to support residents who may be impacted by the current cost of living crisis. That focused the thinking for the discussion regarding next year’s precept.
The Councillors voted to ‘increase the precept by the absolute minimum necessary for the Council to achieve a balanced budget and fulfil its responsibilities to residents in 2023-24, and for the Council and its Committees to plan their priorities in 2023/24 with this in mind’.
Consideration at this stage, so early in the annual cycle will enable cost planning for projects to be addressed accordingly. This could possibly lead to services / project being reduced or postponed but at the core the issues of staffing and level of service delivered to the community must prevail.
This early discussion has set the criteria for budgeting across the next year with a view to minimise the impact on residents regarding the precept.
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