Ilminster Town Council council tax precept goes up by 20 per cent (From This is The West Country)

Ilminster Town Council council tax precept goes up by 20 per cent

4:25pm Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News

ILMINSTER Town Council last night agreed to put up its council tax precept by 20 per cent.

Councillors voted in favour of raising the precept from £205,873 in 2012-13 to £236,100 in 2013-14 at last night’s full council meeting.

The increase will see the portion of a Band D property taken by the town council top £100, rising by 31p a week to just over £110, up from £96.82 last year.

The increase is due to Central Government changes relating to council tax benefit which will have a direct impact on town and parish council precepts nationwide.

Members of the Ilminster council’s finance committee were last week told that unless they put up the budget the council would not have enough money to carry out the services it currently provides and so recommended the increase.

Chard Town Council last week put up its precept by 8p per average Band D household per week because of the changes in council tax benefit with a budget of £530,854 for 2013-14.

Finance committee chairman Cllr Martin Wale, who was unavailable for last week’s meeting, told the News: “I am disappointed that we have had to increase the precept in Chard, especially as we were going to recommend no increase this year, again.

“The decision to increase by 8p a week was brought about by changes in the|benefit system passed down from Government via South Somerset|District Council and we were left with a decision to cut services or increase the precept.”

If the recommendations went through as expected last night it would mean Ilminster Town Council’s budget would be £236,100 for 2013-14 – an increase of £87,990 in two years.