Town council sets budget for 2013/14

 Stone Town Council set its budget for 2013/14 on Thursday 14th February.

The budget was set for 2013/14, with indicative figures for the following two years. The budget will see no increase in the town council’s portion of our Council Tax bills, with a Band D property paying £40.09 for the town council’s services. The rest of the bill is made up of charges from the borough council county council, fire service and police. So far, the county council and fire service have set their budgets for 2013/14, with no increase in their charge.

The town council currently has reserves of £86,856. This is forecast to grow by £34,079 as a result of under-spends in the current year, and just over £20,000 will also be added over the next three years to provide a contingency against unforeseen expenditure.

Article continues after this message

Here’s the town council budget in full:

The budget increases the amount spent on Christmas lights in 2013/14 by almost £5,000, and £2,000 is being provided for a new quarterly newsletter from the town council.

The £100,000 that was raised by upping the town council’s precept in 2009 to fund the purchase of land at Crown Wharf for the town will not be returned to local taxpayers in 20213/14. The council has indicated that it intends to return this money for a couple of years, but new rules under the Localism Act are proving difficult. Returning the £100,000 as a one-off reduction in Council Tax would then lead to an apparently large Council Tax rise the following year, which could trigger a referendum under the Localism Act’s ‘excessive’ Council Tax rise rule.

The minutes from the January meeting state: “It was agreed at a meeting of the General Purposes Committee in January that the clerk would write to the Secretary of State requesting an exemption from the “capping” rules, to allow the £100,000 originally raised for the Crown Wharf Project to be returned to the people of Stone by means of a one-off reduction in Council Tax. This issue could then be reconsidered as part of next year’s budget process in the light of the Secretary of State’s reply.”