ALTON residents look set to face the first locally enforced rise in council tax in ten years following a proposal to increase the town council precept by 13.1 per cent.
The recommendation, put forward by Alton Town CouncilÕs policy and resources committee, is to raise a precept of £205,000 for the year 2002/2003 - representing a £25,000 increase on this yearÕs figure.
While the increase may appear harsh, in real terms it will equate to just £3.85 for an average Band ÔDÕ household, or the equivalent of one penny a day, according to town clerk, Steve Parkinson.
And, in his opinion, the Alton tax payer will still be getting Òa good dealÓ.
ÒCompared to many others Alton Town Council is lucky in the amount of resources it owns which generate income to subsidise services,Ó said Mr Parkinson.
It was a sentiment echoed at last weekÕs P & R meeting by chairman Dave Crocker, who reminded fellow councillors that it was only through the use of reserves to subsidise services that the town council had managed to maintain the precept at £180,000 over the past three years.
Considered by the auditors to be larger than required, the level of these reserves had now been significantly reduced and could no longer provide the subsidy required to maintain an artificially low precept figure. In addition, a drop in balances and interest rates had helped to wipe £16,000 from the councilÕs reserves.
While in hindsight, and bearing in mind the expenditure required by projects such as the redevelopment of the Public Gardens compound, Mr Crocker believed it may have been wrong to draw on reserves for so long without increasing the precept rate, colleague Peter Whitmarsh said it had been the right thing to do.
ÒLast year our reserves were still at an unacceptably high level which had to be justified to the auditors. We are now at the stage where we have to raise the precept to a reasonable level and this is a prudent figure - any less would create difficulties and any more would be too much. People will still be paying considerably less then they were ten years ago,Ó he said.
Town mayor David Willoughby felt the figure might be too low. Echoing last yearÕs reservations, his concern was for what he felt to be Òa substantial underfunding of revenue against expenditureÓ.
ÒThe people of Alton are probably quite unaware that the council has been running subsidised services thanks to the good husbandry of previous councils. I am concerned that a £205,000 precept will still leave a substantial deficit in income,Ó he warned.
While appreciating that it would be unfair to impose too great an increase, he felt the disparity proposed between income and expenditure would give little room for flexibility should the need arise. In particular he was concerned about the tight rein being held on the grants budget.
Roger Fitzer felt the changes to be modest. The council was not trying to do anything too radical and it would, he felt, be acceptable to most householders.