On 19th February the Town Council held an extraordinary meeting to agree next year’s budget and precept.  The Town Council has a gross turnover of about £2.5 million a year.  Nearly half of that is covered by income generated from fees e.g. from the Golf Course and Sports Complex.  The rest (about £1.3 million) has to be raised by council tax – i.e. ‘the precept’.
The big issue facing the Town Council – as with all councils – is, of course, government grant cuts.   In the past, the government simply paid the council tax of people in receipt of council tax welfare benefit.  Now, it has stopped doing so, and instead gives a grant to Councils (the ‘LCTSS’).
Last year, however, it only gave enough grant to cover 90% of the cost, this year only 80%, and next year less still.  About a quarter of Great Aycliffe Town Council’s council tax income comes from people in receipt of council tax welfare benefit.  If and when this grant is ever lost altogether, it will leave a devastating hole in Town Council finances.
For the moment, adding in the loss of the ‘Double Taxation Grant’ from Durham County Council, the Town Council has had an income cut of more than £170,000 over the last two years, with further cuts in future years already confirmed.
Against this background, the Town Council had to set a budget which would continue to deliver quality services to our local community, whilst keeping the council out of financial difficulties in the coming year and in the future.
The Town Council is, therefore, saving money wherever possible.
There is an expected surplus on this year’s budget of £145,000 – mostly from savings made on running costs and higher than expected income levels across all service areas, but also from limited use of the contingency budget and from the cancellation of the fireworks display.
Many of these savings have been removed from next year’s budget, whilst further budget reductions have been made in a number of areas including the civic budget, the sports and golf complex, and special events.
In addition, the capital programme budget has been reduced from £200,000 this year to £170,000 next year. This budget provides for the replacement of works vehicles and machinery, and maintenance to council buildings, footpaths, and facilities such as play areas and the skateboard park.  In addition, the Town Council has halved the annual contribution to capital reserves to £25,000.
At the same time, however, the Town Council has had to allow for unavoidable projected cost increases of more than £120,000 – including inflation on running costs, changes in the law regarding automatic enrolment of pensions, the appointment of special needs pre-school posts, plus, of course, the £40,000 reduction in the LCTSS grant.
The Council is also reinstating a works apprentice post, whilst the work to try and ensure that the fireworks display goes ahead next year will also require additional budget resources.  Two of the biggest expenditures incurred by the Town Council are the Oak Leaf Sports Complex (budgeted at £314,000) and maintaining the parks and play areas (£308,000) – together, these two items take almost half the precept.  The golf course and driving range will cost £87,000 next year.
The final outcome of the meeting was that the Town Council was regrettably forced to make a small council tax increase next year. This will be the first increase since 2009 and follows four consecutive years when the Council was in a position to freeze the council tax.
It will raise the council tax bill next year for a house in Valuation Band A by around £3.39 a year or less than 7p per week.
The budget and precept were passed unanimously by the Council.