At an ‘Extraordinary’ meeting of the Town Council ‘Finance & Policy’ committee, which followed the Planning Committee meeting on last Monday (04 December) evening, Councillors eventually arrived at an approximate precept (Town Council element of what we all pay as Council Tax to Wiltshire Council) for the year 2024-25.
‘Approximate’ – the final amount will be set at a Full Town Council meeting in the New Year, nearer to the start of the financial year, when the number of households and other tax implications can be ascertained more accurately.
They likely increase (against the current year) will be ‘less than 8%’. The meeting, chaired by Cllr Caroline Thomas went through all lines of current expenditure, and several ‘scenarios’ of expenditure for next year, discussing each line, what that meant and how it was justified. Overall, a long but detailed process.
Eventually the proposed precept increase figure emerged. There are still several lines of cost to be properly established – one being the cost of the proposed ‘Civil War re-enactment‘, approved in principle by the Council and planned for next Summer. The budget line presented at this stage could – as Mayor and Cllr Nick Fogg noted – end up being possibly about half what might be expected, and it would be the Town Council that would bear that responsibility. Decisions on this, and a smaller number of other lines requiring detail and clarification will be discussed at the meeting where the precept is confirmed. This will be reported here once done.
The F&P meeting was an ‘extraordinary’ meeting as, initially scheduled for last Monday (27 November) when only three (of the eight) Councillors were able to turn up and it was therefore deemed ‘inquorate’. Some of those not attending did send apologies in advance, and any Council meeting can only happen once quorum is attained, which is half the number of designated Councillors in attendance.
Generally this doesn’t happen very often but it’s not helped when Councillors ‘disappear’. There is the case of one Councillor, co-opted (appointed by a committee of other Councillors by secret ballot) who has attended just one main meeting since appointment, less than the number of times they applied to join the Council before being appointed. This places pressure on the other Councillors and increases the likelihood of meetings not being quorate. Co-option happens very often, the last election by Marlborough residents for any Councillor was in October 2011 when (current) Councillor Noel Barrett-Morton was elected in a by-election. That was more than a dozen years ago.
Being a Town Councillor is a position of privilege, each represents their fellow residents and as such it is a position of responsibility, but essentially a volunteer role as no Councillor gets any remuneration for their time. But any meeting failing to reach quorum places an additional strain on those fellow Councillors who do turn up.
New seating in Stonebridge Wild River Reserve
