Apethorpe Village Meeting

The Precept Increase Our AGM on Monday evening was somewhat unique as it took place in a garden and under COVID guidelines. The result was that attendance was somewhat restricted. The assembly unanimously approved the Village Meeting Officers recommendation to increase our precept levy by £10 per annuum. However, due to the small turn-out the Village Meeting Officers were requested to inform those not attending the rationale for the increase and to give villagers an opportunity to comment. The following information provides you with a brief description of how the Village Meeting sets the precept rate. Although most of you reading this will be ‘old hands’ and aware of the process, please bear with us as there are newcomers to consider and it never hurts to make our actions transparent. Where there are Parish Councils, the precept is determined by Councillors based on outlooked expenditure and without requiring the approval of the residents living in the Parish. Parish Councils and Village Meetings request this funding from the district Council (in our case East Northamptonshire) in the form of a precept tax that is included within the local Council Tax. The precept payment is shown, separate to council tax, on your individual household tax information. Our practice in Apethorpe is to discuss our forecast expenditure at Village Meetings and ask those in attendance to approve the proposed precept rate, whether it remains static, is increased or decreased. Council tax is based on a band D property with adjustments for properties in higher and lower bands. This means that even if a Parish Council requests the same financial precept for the whole parish for the next financial year, due to changes in the number of Band D equivalent properties in the Parish, the individual precept against each property may change. This can result in the precept rising or falling by a small percentage even when the parish precept as a whole has not changed. The average precept for a Band D dwelling in Northamptonshire is £67. Our Apethorpe precept is currently set at an average of £20 per annum per household, giving us a total income of £1,500. Last year we voted not to increase the precept, this year we have voted to increase the precept by an average of c£10 per household per year. This will provide an income of £2,000 for the financial year 2021/22. We have no other source of income. Our precept is a bit like a tanker, we cannot change direction once our course is set and will not have the opportunity to make an adjustment, either up or down, until January 2022. Currently our ‘fixed’ costs are approximately £500 for insurance plus our ‘operating costs’ e.g. grass cutting, weeding, venue hire and the defibrillator; these are estimated to be c£1,000. There will also be ad hoc repairs, maintenance and contingency spending. In total, leaving very little in the kitty. We are entering a time of uncertainty, the new North Northampton Unitary will take over from ENC and our rural area will be combined with the conurbations of Corby, Wellingborough and Kettering. We will lose our district and local councillors and our working contacts in ENC. As a reminder, we have obtained grants totalling £4, 828 from ENC and our local councillor, all of which has been spent on village projects. We are keenly aware that our village will not be at the top of the list when competing for voice and grants in this new environment and it is likely that there will be less money available for villages like ours. We just do not know what else we might have to take on, an example being the grade II stocks and whipping post (see minutes). There will always be some unknowns and there may also be enhancements we want to consider, more bulb planting, lavender bushes for the Church entrance, history boards for our heritage items etc. You tell us, we are sure that you have some ideas? For the reasons given we strongly recommend that this village has a ‘hedge or sinking fund’ in the region of at least £500 and, to that end, we recommended an increased precept for the financial year 2021/22 which was approved by the assembly.