The Timsbury Parish Council Precept for the village that will be included in Council Tax bills for the year from April 2020/21 will amount to £69,000. This total will be divided between the households in the village (approximately 1,200) according to Council Tax band and the number of adults in residence.
The charge for a Band D house is expected to be about £74 for the year, an increase of just over £1 per month compared with 2019/20.
In the current year to the end of March 2020 Timsbury Parish Council is expected to spend a total of £78,000. In the year to end of March 2021 the forecast spend is £88,800.
The increase in spending is necessary to replace services previously provided by B&NES Council. In the past few years B&NES Council has lost Government funding, increased its spend on social care and faced restrictions on Council Tax increases.
As a result, the B&NES has substantially reduced the amount it spends on other things and over the next three years it plans to cut another £15 million from its budget. As services disappear parish councils are left to provide such replacement services as they see fit.
For the coming year Timsbury Parish Council has decided to fund the Hub library to replace the discontinued mobile library service; to maintain provision of a youth service that would otherwise have vanished and retain the street sweeper, all previously paid for by B&NES Council.
The expected costs for these three elements in 2020/21 are hub library £12,800; youth service £13,300, sweeper £5,600. These are costs that will need to be met in future years and the increased Precept recognises this on-going commitment.
In addition, we also lost an annual grant from B&NES and the Parish Council is protecting its reserves in preparation for expected high spending in future years on street lighting and road safety improvements.
Full details of the Precept budget can be found on the village website www.timsbury.org.uk/parish council/finances