PENARTH Town Council insist it’s ‘standards practice’ to draw on reserves during budget setting processes despite one councillor saying many council institutions are having to use reserves to “back up lack of budget”.
In a town council meeting on January 17, the notable headlines from the budget setting process for 24/25 included the precept – a tax all households pay to the town council each year – going up again. And there is a substantial rise in burial costs coming.
The precept, discussed in terms of the amount a Band D household pays in Penarth, is going up by 2.99 per cent or £2.54 a year, or 5p a week, however you want to look at it.
The current precept is set at £84.98. From April it will be £87.52.
The more glaring rise was the amount it will cost to bury the dead in ‘perfect Penarth’.
In April, a one-depth burial will increase by £216, while a two-depth burial increases by £63, but a three-depth burial will reduce in price by £90.
From April, all burials in Penarth will cost £820 regardless of depth.
- Read more: Burial costs to go up in Penarth
Another notable decision in the budget setting for next year was the use of £17,900 of reserves to help fund expenditure.
The council insists the money is not being used to plug a funding gap, but “to make use of specific reserves that have been set aside”.
This is despite one councillor saying PTC were not alone in trying to back up the lack of budget.
The decision comes as the PTC’s ‘mother council’ – Labour run Vale of Glamorgan Council has lamented their upcoming budget for next year as one of the hardest they‘ve ever had to set.
Vale Council said the 3.1 per cent increase in funding they are set to receive form Welsh Government is not enough and leader Cllr Lis Burnett said the council was being forced into making “unpalatable decisions”.
Despite all this, back in the world of Penarth Town Council, councillors believe the public are still getting good value for money from their local council in these difficult financial times.
Cllr Emma Garson, representative of the St Augustine’s Ward, said: “We are not alone. Many councils are having to use reserves to back up lack of budget.
“Council tax increases are never popular, but I think it is important to remind people this is a really small part of council funding streams.”
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