In the current year 2001-2002 the precept for the new Parish council was set to £7.46 per household which was also lower than most other areas. The budget for the new Parish has now been set and will include reserves accumulated by the Neighbourhood Council. This was approved by a Public Meeting which passed over these funds to the new Parish Council.
This figure has now been increased by over 320%. There is a further increase of 19.5% in the Section 136 agreed supplement to Milton Keynes Council
The 2002-2003 draft Budget proposals for the new Parish
Council are
Administration
£48,000
Contingency
£9,000
Publicity
£12,000
Grants
£25,000
Youth Project
£10,000
Xmas Lights
£2,000
Jubilee Carnival
£10,000
Other Projects
£10,000
Environment
£154,000 or £114,000
Including:- Bletchley Partnership
Board £60,000
Parking & Grass Verges
£30,000
Traffic Calming etc.
£40,000
Estate Caretaker
£20,000
Dog Fouling
£4,000
Admin Environment Officer £10,000
(Half Year)
I will do such things
What they are yet I know not
but they shall be
The terrors of the earth
King Lear, Act 2 Scene 4 - William Shakespeare
This will result in a precept of around £31.83 per average household
However, there is another part of the precept which is set, not by the parish or neighbourhood but by Milton Keynes Council. This allowed Milton Keynes to extend its capping limit by utilising parish precepts for tasks such as grass cutting which can be carried out by either council. For those parish councils participating, the extra precept is estimated by MKC on the basis of the cost of these services. However, for those incurring increased charges, they are subsidised down to a more reasonable level. Those that incur lower charges will have the lowest overall Council Tax. Unparished areas and parish councils not participating pay a special charge at that average level. Thus, until neighbourhood councils were introduced Bletchley was effectively subsidising Parish Councils at the rate of £600,000 p.a.
This is why, despite its low precept in 2001-2002, West Bletchley no longer pays the lowest Council Tax in the area.
In fact next year the Parish will contribute £174,568 to Milton Keynes Council. This adds £27.99 to the average Parish Precept.If Milton Keynes Council paid for the work there would be a special charge totalling £193,396 on the Council Tax spread among Bletchley residents. However when Council tax was capped, the overall Council Tax Bill for Milton Keynes would have been reduced by the amount of the £174,568 contributed so that the resultant average charge would be about the same.
As a consequence the overall precept would be around £59.83 per average household in 2002-2003. This was resolved by the January meeting of the Parish Council. The final council tax bill for Milton Keynes as a whole will be finalised at the end of February.