Since the increase in the parish precept part of the council tax (14p per household per week) in April there has (rightly) been much discussion about the value for money which the parish council should obtain in order to ensure minimal costs but good quality for goods and services. It might be useful for parishioners to know of some of the ways in which your PC has been controlling costs over the past few months, so the following is a flavour of some of the methods being employed in this regard:

1. Ensuring, where possible, that at least three quotations are obtained before placing contracts for work (standard procedure of course)

2. There has been a recent refund of nearly £1000 due to the fact that the chairman noted that tax was being charged on precept monies after contributors had already paid tax on it.

3. Events (such as Royal Wedding celebrations) shall be self-financing wherever possible (RW made over £1200 to help fund projects in the future)

4. The grants-giving arrangements have been streamlined

5. Unskilled or semi-skilled work in the parish has been carried out using ‘Community Payback’ (via the Probation Service) using young offenders: this has saved at least £600 already this year)

6. Volunteer work (such as refurbishing gates/play equipment at Westfield/shrub clearance etc) has saved at least £700.

Your council will continue to seek to implement ways of using its resources. There is a legal level at which contingency funds need to be set aside which can make it seem that councils are ‘hoarding’ funds: these have to be readily available for urgent or emergency needs.

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