Precept Consultation
Providing residents with a new Parish Centre has been a priority for Members and residents for several years. Through good financial management, fund raising, and successful grant funding applications, Members have enabled Parish reserves to grow to the value of £1.2m, and thanks all its supporting community groups.
Back in 2020 the Parish Council were ‘good to go’ with the new build; however, on 23rd March 2020 our country went into lockdown due to Covid, a pandemic that no one could have ever predicted. In a variety of ways, the pandemic continues to cascade its impact on communities, any residents that have carried out recent home improvements will be aware how the cost of building materials has escalated. Those escalating costs apply to the build of the New Parish Centre, that said the Parish Council now need to secure an additional £450k to complete the build.
Council Members’ wish to consult with residents on raising the Parish precept to cover the additional cost of borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board (loan of 450K); which will complete the finance required to build residents a Parish Centre to be proud of. A building that will provide space for community activities and for residents to hire for personal celebrations, from christenings parties to the celebration of life goodbyes.
The current precept is £89.96 and the council have always voted to keep the precept low (please see Council Tax Precepts 2023-24 for other local precepts; for example Somersham is £181.77). However, the time has come when the council would like to put up the precept in order to be able to raise the last bit of funding required for the new Parish Centre.
Rightly so, residents first question – By how much? Our current estimation is approximately 52 pence per week, per household (less than a chocolate bar snack)! We are exploring every alternative through grant funding to keep the increase as low as possible.
The consultation will be open for two weeks, starting from 27th September 2023 closing on 11th October 2023.
The Precept Consultation is now CLOSED.
Contact Information
Email – clerk@warboysparishcouncil.co.uk
Facebook – @WarboysParishCouncil
Telephone – 07985 771834 / 07985 771676
