Where Does Your Parish Spend Your Money?, Openness of parish council's to financial scrutiny Options

[Simon Kirby]

West Berks publishes the per-capita parish precept for all of the parishes in West Berkshire, and I've ordered the list by that per-capita charge.

If you were interested in where a parish was spending your money the first thing you'd need to see is the council's budget. This details what the council spends on what services and from this you can make an informed comparison with the costs of other parishes and judge how efficiently you parish is spending your money.

I find it pretty shocking then that parish councils are in general very poor are making their financial details available. I looked for the council budgets for the top 17 parishes by per-capita charge and I only found the budget on three of those web sites: Newbury, Shaw-cwm-Donnington, and Stratfield Mortimer (and if I missed any then I apologise, but I did have a good rummage).

In principle you could get the budget with a Freedom of Information request, but that is not without its problems, not least that a defensive council might make a bit of a song-and-dance of the request and not take kindly to your unwelcome interest. The Freedom of Information Act places a general duty on public authorities to make their information publicly available, and the spirit of the act is that public authorities should publish useful information about themselves without being asked.

On this showing the parishes in West Berkshire are in general not encouraging their parishioners to take an interest in their financial details, and it's a reasonable guess that parishioners are indeed not at all interested, and that is not a healthy state of affairs.

Here's the list of parishes by per-capita precept charge.

CODE

Parish                          Precept
Burghfield                      100.57
Theale                          87.44
Hungerford                      78.77
Newbury                         75.65
Thatcham                        72.55
Lambourn                        61.85
Pangbourne                      61.39
Winterbourne                    55.35
Chaddleworth                    54.92
Shaw-cwm-Donnington             54.54
Stratfield Mortimer             53.68
Hermitage                       52.31
Streatley                       46.91
East Ilsley                     46.37
Yattendon                       45.42
Holybrook                       45.29
Tilehurst                       44.59
Frilsham                        44.21
Great Shefford                  43.95
Aldworth                        43.62
Compton                         43.42
Purley-on-Thames                42.96
Beech Hill                      41.83
Leckhampstead                   39.73
Woolhampton                     39.68
Kintbury                        39.37
Padworth                        37.34
Ashampstead                     36.74
Speen                           36.39
Greenham                        36.19
Beedon                          35.65
Welford                         34.78
Stanford Dingley                33.8
Brightwalton                    33.71
East Garston                    33.66
Beenham                         30.94
Aldermaston                     30.6
Basildon                        29.13
Boxford                         28.72
Chieveley                       26.81
Sulhamstead                     26.8
Cold Ash                        26.54
Inkpen                          26.17
Tidmarsh with Sulham            25.7
Midgham                         24.06
Bucklebury                      23.84
Hamstead Marshall               23.54
Hampstead Norreys               22.67
Bradfield                       22.54
Peasemore                       21.67
Englefield                      21.05
Brimpton                        20.6
Ufton Nervet                    16.92
West Ilsley                     16.28
Wokefield                       11.48
Enborne                         1.41
Catmore                         -0
Combe                           -0
Farnborough                     -0
Fawley                          -0
Wasing                          -0
West Woodhay                    -0

[Andy Capp]

Would you explain in layman's terms what 'per-capita parish precept' and 'per-capita charge' mean?

[Simon Kirby]

Would you explain in layman's terms what 'per-capita parish precept' and 'per-capita charge' mean?

It's the money that a band "D" council tax payer pays towards the running of the parish council.

[blackdog]

How did Enborne set a precept? I thought the council had collapsed before budget time - I guess not?

[Simon Kirby]

How did Enborne set a precept? I thought the council had collapsed before budget time - I guess not?

From the Parish Council Toolkit: The Local Government Finance (New parishes) Regulations 1998 No 119 (as amended –SI 1998 No 3270) would allow WBC to anticipate the Enborne precept, and as Nick Carter went on to chair the newly formed Enborne Parish Council I'm guessing this is what happened.

[On the edge]

These numbers throw some very interesting anomalies don't they. What has Burghfield done for 'top billing' ? Not even a market, perhaps cheap funerals! Then there is my sisters gripe, Shaw *** Donnington, where her friends enjoy exactly the same facilities and are actually nearer Newbury Town, but pay £20 less!! No wonder our Julian thinks he can afford a derelict control tower, on these numbers Greenham could and still not touch dear old Newbury. And Bucklebury, umm, perhaps a contribution to the Police Precept would be in order, you can well afford it.

Isn't this a mess!

[Simon Kirby]

These numbers throw some very interesting anomalies don't they. What has Burghfield done for 'top billing' ? Not even a market, perhaps cheap funerals! Then there is my sisters gripe, Shaw *** Donnington, where her friends enjoy exactly the same facilities and are actually nearer Newbury Town, but pay £20 less!! No wonder our Julian thinks he can afford a derelict control tower, on these numbers Greenham could and still not touch dear old Newbury. And Bucklebury, umm, perhaps a contribution to the Police Precept would be in order, you can well afford it.

Isn't this a mess!

It's tantalising, but without the budgets it's just not possible to understand what's being spent on what. Local government needs to make a significant effort to engage with its public and hold itself accountable, and that starts with an openness of information, and most importantly financial information.

[blackdog]

From the Parish Council Toolkit: The Local Government Finance (New parishes) Regulations 1998 No 119 (as amended –SI 1998 No 3270) would allow WBC to anticipate the Enborne precept, and as Nick Carter went on to chair the newly formed Enborne Parish Council I'm guessing this is what happened.

Yes, they'd need a budget to pay their expenses claims.