‘It’s just a swindle’ - parishes claims cash is kept by council (From Swindon Advertiser)
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‘It’s just a swindle’ - parishes claims cash is kept by council
4:00pm Thursday 31st January 2013 in News
Council leader Rod Bluh
PARISH councils are accusing Swindon Council chiefs of swindling them out a share of a £9.9m Government grant intended to plug a cut in council tax income caused by benefits reforms.
Council tax benefit will be replaced with council tax support in April and one effect is homes receiving the new benefit towards the charge will no longer be included in council tax calculations, reducing the amount of council tax income.
To offset this impact without the need for councils to increase council tax or cut further expenditure, the Government gave extra cash to authorities which send out the council tax bills, and encouraged them to share some with parish councils.
Swindon Council gets £9.9m, of which £167,000 would have to be handed out to mitigate the impact on parishes.
But the administration has decided to keep it to itself, meaning parish councils either have to reduce expenditure and/or increase their precept on council tax, which is paid by parishioners.
A report to be presented to cabinet on February 6, when leaders will formally endorse the decision, shows the average tax income reduction across the parished areas in 2013/14 is 6.2 per cent, compared to 13.8 per cent across non-parished areas.
The Wiltshire Association of Local Councils has recommended to parish councils to increase their precepts to completely offset the reduction and to also write a letter of complaint tocouncil leader, Rod Bluh,their ward councillors and the Government.
The parishes worst hit are those with higher proportions of households receiving council tax benefit.
Stratton Parish Council has decided to raise its precept by 2.51 percent to £105.52 per year, for a Band D property.
Parish Council leader John Foley (Lab) said: “As the saying goes, ‘We was robbed.’ “Despite the last four years of a reduction in our precepts, we’re terribly disappointed because of the intransigence of this parsimonious council.”
Parish chief financial officer Paul Russell said: “If we had had this money we could have reduced the rate by about two per cent. I think it would have gone under a hundred pounds this time.”
Stanton Fitzwarren Parish Council is hit by 6.6 per cent.
Chairman Tom Charnock said: “To make any change to our services would be detrimental to the parish so we have said on balance we will increase the precept 6.6 per cent.
“As a parish council it seems incongruous the council are given money to give to us, they choose to keep it and we then have to put up the charges to our residents. They’re swindling us of the money.
“But these level of increases wouldn’t be necessary if the council handed out the money they should have given out for parish councils.
“This is what Wiltshire County Council has done. Wiltshire County Council were given £1.15m and they’ve handed it out to parish councils.”
The borough council’s cabinet member for strategic planning and sustainability, Coun Dale Heenan (Con, Covingham and Dorcan, areas), said the Govern-ment had not specified where the money should go, and the borough had to find £2m savings because of the council tax changes.
He said: “We’re always happy to talk with parish councils.”
Comments(19)
PaulD
says...
10:19am Fri 1 Feb 13
The Artist formally known as Grumpy Old Man
says...
10:24am Fri 1 Feb 13
LocalBob80 wrote:"At least parish councils are in touch with
The borough council’s cabinet member for strategic planning and sustainability, Coun Dale Heenan (Con, Covingham and Dorcan, areas), said the Govern-ment had not specified where the money should go, and the borough had to find £2m savings because of the council tax changes.
It's been well documented that Dale Heenan would prefer to see the back of parish councils.
It's all very well that he thinks they are not economical but somewhat hypercritical from SBC
At least parish councils are in touch with the communities they represent
the communities they represent"
By that statement, it suggests you've never lived in Blunsdon parish but outside of the village then!
A.Baron-Cohen
says...
11:07am Fri 1 Feb 13
PaulD wrote:I could not agree more
Parish councils are an unnecessary extra layer of beaurocracy
Always Grumpy
says...
12:04pm Fri 1 Feb 13
LocalBob80 wrote:Not if you are in Blunsdon Parish. If you live outside of Blunsdon village, you get nothing and are completely ignored. I have been paying into Blunson Parish Council coffers for over 16 years and have yet to see anything for my contributions that actually benefits me. It does make me wonder where the money goes to!
The borough council’s cabinet member for strategic planning and sustainability, Coun Dale Heenan (Con, Covingham and Dorcan, areas), said the Govern-ment had not specified where the money should go, and the borough had to find £2m savings because of the council tax changes.
It's been well documented that Dale Heenan would prefer to see the back of parish councils.
It's all very well that he thinks they are not economical but somewhat hypercritical from SBC
At least parish councils are in touch with the communities they represent
The sooner this out of date layer of beaurocracy is removed, the better.
RichardR1
says...
12:38pm Fri 1 Feb 13
The Artist formally known as Grumpy Old Man
says...
12:49pm Fri 1 Feb 13
RichardR1 wrote:Odd statement. Why does he need to be a parish councillor to find out? The information is all freely available online!
Always Grumpy you could always become a Parish Councillor and find out.
Russell Holland
says...
11:08pm Fri 1 Feb 13
Stratton Parish Councillors were not elected following a ballot - because the number of people who put themselves forward was less than the vacancies they automatically became "elected".
The meeting discussing the draft budget was held in private and therefore the public did not have the chance to hear the reasons behind the decision that was made.
Stratton Parish are complaining that the Borough did not give them £75,000 however the following is copied from the Finance report
2.5 Current bank balances for all bank accounts are outlined below:
Bank Accounts
Current Account
£47,694.05
Imprest Account 2
£26,175.52
Account 3
£2,025.62
Petty Cash
£190.02
Investment A/C
£800,000.00
Reserve A/C
£626,183.35
Grange Petty Cash
£290.02
Change Floats
£2,040.00
Balances as at 31st December 2012
£1,504,598.58
I don't see how the Parish having that much money in reserves is entitled to demand that people across the whole of Swindon give them an addition £75k
LocalBob80
says...
10:24am Sat 2 Feb 13
Yet it's acceptable to waste £500,000 on a non existent wifi package
LocalBob80
says...
10:25am Sat 2 Feb 13
Russell Holland
says...
7:05pm Sat 2 Feb 13
LocalBob80
says...
6:09am Sun 3 Feb 13
Indeed.
Yet it's acceptable to waste £500,000 on a non existent wifi package
Any chance of showing us the accounts for that?
LocalBob - it is all on the Parish website - I copied and pasted the figures from the January 2013 finance report.
Why on earth would the wifi accounts be on the parish accounts?
Russell Holland
says...
9:22am Sun 3 Feb 13
LocalBob80
says...
10:32am Sun 3 Feb 13
Now you're up to speed, perhaps you might equally grace us with the SBC financial report that demonstrates how brilliantly our money has been invested in £500,000 wifi and a £15millon car park
LocalBob80
says...
12:25pm Sun 3 Feb 13
MrAngry
says...
12:33pm Sun 3 Feb 13
If Stratton have reserves of £1,500,000 they are clearly better managed than they would be if SBC took control.
Empty Car Park
says...
4:29pm Sun 3 Feb 13
MrAngry wrote:Good point.
The figures posted by Russell Holland make a good case for retaining parish councils.
If Stratton have reserves of £1,500,000 they are clearly better managed than they would be if SBC took control.
and, judging by the reluctance to publish the equivalent SBC financial report, Councillor Holland also demonstrates that parish councillors are far more transparent and trustworthy
Tim Newroman
says...
10:46am Mon 4 Feb 13
ALL of this money was OUR money at one point, until it was stolen from us under threat of duress.
"We was robbed", yes, Mr Foley, we certainly were, and continue to be.
Oliver_Donachie
says...
7:57pm Mon 4 Feb 13
With 1.5 Million of tax payers money in the bank it would have been useful for them to explain why they need to raise precept further on the stretched residents of the parish. I appreciate some may argue they show financial prudence in having reserves, but that still leaves the question, why the further rise?
Its a little bit hard to ask the questions when no one is allowed to attend...
LocalBob80 says...
9:31am Fri 1 Feb 13
It's been well documented that Dale Heenan would prefer to see the back of parish councils.
It's all very well that he thinks they are not economical but somewhat hypercritical from SBC
At least parish councils are in touch with the communities they represent