At the Town Council meeting on Wednesday 13th December, The Council finalised it’s budget for the coming financial year. Here is how we got there.
Ongoing Services
In recognition of the invaluable work done by volunteers in the parish, we will continue to provide our programme of grants including the Community Development Fund. We will also provide more support for Voluntary and Community groups, following on from the programme of training courses we have put on this year.
We would like to continue to financially support Victoria Park and the Pool as we believe they provide an essential service to local young people and families.
Thanks to having it’s own dedicated staff, the Town Hall is slowly becoming more self-sustaining but still needs our support to continue to provide a venue for the many activities that we enjoy. It will also need some structural work in the coming year to suit fire regulations and improve it’s facilities.
The Citizen’s Advice Bureau service has been extremely successful, generating £119,000 for residents as well as providing invaluable help and we will continue to fund this.
The new Town Ranger has been a valuable benefit to the parish and we plan to continue to provide this service.
Developing Provision
Following on from the success of our programme of events for young people this year and recognising the loss of funding from Devon County for any youth service provision, we want to grow this to develop a properly funded programme of activities and support for the young people of our parish.
After the success of the Buckfastleigh Cinema, the Sports Festival/Colourspace, and various communal meals and other gatherings and celebrations this year, we plan to fund a programme of events that encourage strengthening community and support cultural and artistic activity.
We have realised that we also need some extra help to organise and deliver all this.
Funding this
Unfortunately Teinbridge District Council has decreased the amount it paid to the Town Council (the Council Tax Support Grant) by £1,000 to reflect the Central Government cut to their Revenue Support Grant (from £1½ million in 2016 to nothing in 2019) and this will be further reduced the following year (or removed entirely)…
However we can do all that we have planned next year with only a very modest increase to cover this loss of funding and inflation.
We therefore plan to increase the precept by 3.72% – an increase of 6p a week or £3.19 a year for a typical (Band B) Buckfastleigh household (8p/week or£4.10/year for band D).
All of us in the Town Council are eagerly looking forward to growing and developing the work we can do together with your support and help in the coming year, to make Buckfastleigh an even better place to live.