Parish Council Budget -update

The Parish Council considered its three-year budget for the period starting April 2014 at the Council meeting last week. Overall spending is planned to increase by £2,900 (8%) between 2013/14 and 2014/15. The main reasons for the increase are:

• to meet a contractual obligation to the Clerk which should have been dealt with many years ago
• to improve the condition of the football pitch on the King George V Playing Field (particularly the goal mouths and the centre circle);
• to pay for the three-yearly inspection of trees on the King George V Playing Field and for any work required. This will include removing a silver birch near the bowling green and planting four new trees;
• to provide suitable secure storage for PC documents which are currently kept at the homes of the Clerk and former Chairman

The special projects for 2014/15 will be:

• professional pruning of the trees in the High Street (after consulting and reaching agreement with CWaC);
• replacement notice-board in Oscroft;
• providing a bench on the High Street (position still to be agreed)

Although spending will go up by 8% it is not yet possible to say how much the PC precept, and therefore people's Council Tax, will go up to pay for this. This is because CWaC has not yet told the PC what its Council Tax base is. Since April 2013, when the government made Council Tax benefit a local (CWaC) responsibility, CWaC has been given a government grant to compensate parish councils for the effect of the change. It is not clear whether CWaC will pass on Tarvin's share of this grant to the PC in 2014/15.
The PC is of course lobbying hard for this to happen