Fiscal Impact Options

[Simon Kirby]

Being discussed at tomorrow night's Town Council Policy and Resources Committee:

17. Fiscal Impact
Given the potential removal of the Local Council Tax Support scheme grant of £89,679 to have an initial discussion on potential mitigation options, including: passing on the cost to the precept payers; freezing recruitment; removing funding for third parties; direct cutting of existing projects/functions/services and any other options that are put forward.

I have argued for some time that the town's allotmenteers should be given responsibility for the management and maintenance of the allotment service. It costs £41k for the Town Council to administer the service and it's reasonable to expect the whole of that to be saved through self-management, along with a fair proportion of the Council's £300k back-office and administration costs, so maybe a total saving of £80k through self-management.

The cost saving isn't particularly my concern, it's more because self-management makes for a better allotment site, but saving the tax-payer money is a good end in itself, and if it comes down to a choice between the Council increasing the tax bill by 10% to cover this Local Council Tax Support shortfall, cutting some other useful service, or the self-management of the allotment service, I know what I'd vote for.

I've written to one of the councillors with this proposal so I hope now that it will get some serious consideration. If you have some ideas of your own then I suggest that you write to your councillors too.