Council Tax-Wiltshire

Peter Dolman · Council Tax-Wiltshire

I understand that Wiltshire Councty Council may be increasing their council tax take by 3.8%. The WCC band D rate is currently £1,020.59 so a 3.8% increase will cost a further £38.78 each year.

There is no news on the North Wilts District Councils, The Police Authority's or the Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Services requirements for the next financial year yet. Given the current financial climate and dodgy loans to Icelandic Banks we could be in for a shock.

So given that, based on a band D house, Calne Town Council have increase their tax by approx £50.00 per year and WCC by £39.00 thats already an extra £89.00 that needs to be found.

With the prospect of fortnightly bin collections and other unpopular decisions yet to be made do you think we are getting value for money?

Chepfer

Surely the wilts county council precept should be going down.

I would have swore that i heard somewhere (wink wink) that we were going to have a new county council and that there were massive savings to be had because of it ........

Is it me or am i wrong ?

Peter Dolman

Yes savings will happen but the cost of combining the District & County Councils will cost money before the savings can be realised. Also this is the last year where District Councils will raise a tax in their own name.

If it is 3.8% then that is quite reasonable given inflation, 4.5% and falling.
Of course if they decide they need more than 3.8% then our personal costs will rise even more.

pimpdriver

I guarantee they won't make savings next year after the unitary authority has been set up.

"oh, sorry, we forgot about that"

Attrebates

Peter Dolman

There has been a number of highly placed officers taking "packages" as there will be more post holders than positions so redundancies will be the order of the day.

With 4 district councils all with chief officers reducing down to one you can see that there will be savings.
There will be costs involved in combining the 4 computor systems which will eventually lead to overall savings.

So yes it will take a number of years before all all the savings are made but councils plan for the long term as its prudent to do so.

Don't forget nominations for next Junes elections will be due approx April 2009. You will need approx 30 residents of the ward you intend to stand in to sign the nomination papers. From then on its fairly simple you just need to persuade voters to place their cross against your name.

Peter Dolman

the county council will be setting a budget which will include the district council cost. therefore the increase cost to a Calne resident in a band D house will be approx £38.75 (county council) £5.0 (district council) and £50.00 (town council), a total increase in the region of £93.25.
There is likely to be an increase in the police/fire/ambulance authorities cost.
It seems therefore it will cost at least an additional £100.00 to live in Calne, is it worth it?

Bear

Seeing as these increases will probably be reflected everywhere else in the country the relative cost of living in Calne as opposed to elsewhere is irrelevant.

rosco

Dexter the Flexter

Although the new unitary authority will come into being later this year, there are a number of issues that will take some time to resolve until everything is under the unitary umbrella. For instance I think that each of the 4 Districts and the County have separate IT systems in different locations, which will take a considerable time to resolve.

Also, was it the case that Gov stated that there would be less central funding available for the councils and that if no unitary solution could be found, then the current two tier system would only recieve the same level of funding as what the new unitary authoroty would get?

In terms of the CT increase, 3.8% almost seems reasonable.

Bear

Peter Dolman

Good/bad news.

If you live on the new estate behind the Tesco Express shop you would have had a shock when receiving the recent council tax demand. This is because after many years of delay the Boundary Commission had authorised a change of boundary, so instead of being in the Parish of Calne Without you are now in Calne. The without precept is just £7.00 per year when Calne Town's is approx £184.

The good news is that this means everyone else in Calne is paying less tax than we would have been if the change had not happened.

This is not the end of the story because the leader of the district council, councillor Dick Tonge conservative, has table a motion calling on the Boundary Commission to rescind the order. As this is very unlikely to happen his motives for doing so may be more to do with the forthcoming election than anything else.

The decision to include these approx 300 houses is the correct one. They vote for a representative on the town council, Chilvester ward, and benefit from all the town provides but have never contributed financially. This was obviously not fair to the majority of the town's residents.

Local lass

how the new estate could be classed as calne with out is daft im glad they chandge it.

Peter Dolman

The land built upon was in the Calne Without Parish but the building of the byepass installed a new natural boundary. The procrastination by the boundary commission in signing off the change in the boundary was unacceptable.
No reasonable person would object to the change, its patently obvious to anyone that these houses are part of the town.

Chepfer

Theres a boundary line right through quarrydale close i believe. number 4 being in calne without and nuber 6 being within, even though number 4 is closer to the town centre !.