13% rise in council tax share agreed by Biggleswade town councillors

The total precept is £1.83m and the budget is £2.1m, according to the town council in a social media post. “In real terms, this equates to an extra £26.68 per annum for a Band D property,” it said.

Its precept will be combined with Central Bedfordshire Council’s demand, as well as those of Bedfordshire Police and the county fire and rescue service for council tax bills for households.

Town clerk Peter Tarrant told a council precept meeting: “This is the end result of a detailed budgetary process agreed with councillors several months ago. The council also has an obligation to maintain its capital estate.

“In principle, there’s a recommendation to apply for a public works loan board loan at some stage during the next financial year,” he said. “This would be about £80,000 to support the improvement and transformation of our play areas, with 13 or 14 to complete.

“The council’s capacity and competencies are increasing. It’s taken back some of the externalised functions it had, such as outsourcing the finance to a private accounting firm.

“That work has been taken on board by the council and we’ve our own properly professional finance team. Just under £65,000 of cost reductions are incorporated into this budget. We’ll continue to drive inefficiencies out of the organisation.

“The council has tried to attract external funding, applying for more than £400,000 while managing to deliver £174,000 of extra monies for the community. It’s a good outcome, although we need to persevere with that.”

BTC’s head of finance Ernest Bour explained: “The precept is what the council charges local electors to meet its budgetary requirements.

“The town council receives no direct funding from central government, and only relies on the precept and any other income generated from services or facilities the local authority provides.”

Town councillor Colin Thomas said: “In these times of hardship, job losses and national tax rises I strongly disagree with the proposed 13 per cent increase.

“I wholeheartedly agree with councillor (Mark) Knight and CBC councillor (Grant) Fage when they rejected the principle of the 13 per cent option (last week).

“An 8.5 per cent rise is perfectly acceptable, as long as the council breaks even. The extra 4.5 per cent to cover two public realm team posts seems a little high. This is £75,000 a year roughly, which will be every year forever.”

Town councillor Jo Jones suggested the viewpoints on “both sides are really compelling”, saying: “If we only just break even, we haven’t accounted for contracting (public realm work) in the budget, so that could push us over a little and cause trouble. We’re future-proofing ourselves by doing this.”

Councillor Madeline Russell listed several public realm activities, such as cleaning up after events, adding: “The higher rates of council tax are much because of the national insurance employer’s increase.

“The only larger council in Central Bedfordshire setting a lower rate of tax is dipping into its reserves.”

Councillors agreed the recommended maximum precept with 11 votes in favour and one against.