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Increase in Parish Taxes - Terry (21st Mar 2012 - 17:59:47) I note that the Parish Council have demanded an increase in council Tax of a huge 5.2%. The total money being collected has increased by 6.6%, presumably resulting from an increase in the number of houses in the parish. Why do they need to collect this size of increase, perhaps they have not realised that there is a significant pressure on our incomes. I have not seen any Councillors telling us about this increase and why!

Re: Increase in Parish Taxes - Concerned Taxpayer (21st Mar 2012 - 18:55:52) I also agree that this increase is not reasonable. Perhaps the place to ask the question is next weeks Parish Meeting. Is it because we are still paying for a suspended Parish Clerk as well as a locum clerk? Is it because expensive Solicitors have been used over this affair? Is it because of the training for inputting onto the new web site? All not really the parishoners problem! Why should they be made to pay? There are many more questions. I've said this before, but .... We are NOT charging the PC for any training, we are NOT charging them for the updates we are doing for them. We are not charging them for hosting their website. We are not charging them for the link to their website. We charged them £500 to design the website and copy all the old data over to it. This was way below the commercial value of the project. To be honest I now wish we had just left them stuck with a website that they could not update because Mr Tough was refusing to give them access it.

Re: Increase in Parish Taxes - Jane G (21st Mar 2012 - 19:21:26) Maybe something to do with the deficit caused by the clerk's compensation payments!!

Re: Increase in Parish Taxes - Richard (21st Mar 2012 - 20:12:04) This may be a silly question, but does the Parish council publish its budget?

Re: Increase in Parish Taxes - Miranda R (22nd Mar 2012 - 09:51:21) Dear Concerned Taxpayer I can vouch for Dark Group's generosity to the community. Liphook in Bloom is run by volunteers and Alan has set up our website free of charge and updates it whenever we ask him too - and very speedily I must add. And this is only one of his many community projects. So it's unfair for people to keep questioning the training, updates etc to the Parish Website, which is a great improvement to the old one.

Re: Increase in Parish Taxes - AK (23rd Mar 2012 - 12:29:51) I did request a copy of the precept and details of how the increase was arrived at prior to the last meeting. I came away with the impression that the calculations were almost a stab in the dark (not necessarily a bad one) because the people involved in setting the precept had very little historic information or experience in this area and had to get the job done quickly as the date for submission had already passed. It is not an ideal way to arrive at the figure but maybe next year more information will be available and we may even see a reduction? AK

Re: Increase in Parish Taxes - Paul Robinson (26th Mar 2012 - 13:12:24) Please note that the Annual Parish Council Budget has been available for inspection for some time at the Parish Council Office in the Midhurst Road. It is a public document and can be inspected between 10.00am and 13.00pm 14.00 -16.00 Monday to Friday. Paul Robinson

Re: Increase in Parish Taxes - Terry (26th Mar 2012 - 16:27:33) And why the increase?

Re: Increase in Parish Taxes - Dawn Hoskins (26th Mar 2012 - 17:34:53) This is far too complicated a matter to put into a single 'one-liner' response. But basically, if things cost more we need more to stay in the same place! Every decision made has cost implications and the choice was mainly abut keeping Council property in good condition which had sadly been neglected for a long time. We are also dutybound to treat our staff in the correct manner. There are a lot of costs that never go down - only up - and they have to be budgeted for. Failure to plan = planning to fail etc etc. All the facts and figures are available for you to take away and puruse at your leisure. You could also write to the Chairman of Finance and Policy for a more detailed explaination if you don't want to come in person.

Re: Increase in Parish Taxes - RME (26th Mar 2012 - 17:52:59) Terry if you are so concerned about the increase I guess we will be seeing you at the Parish Council AGM tonight at the Millennium Hall where I am sure one of the councillors will answer you question. If you cannot make it tonight the Parish Monthly meeting is on Tuesday night at the Peak centre.

Re: Increase in Parish Taxes - Terry (28th Mar 2012 - 10:57:32) Thank you Dawn for your lesson in budgetary controls. My question is simple, why did the concil feel that it was in order to increase the council tax take by 6.6%?. That is over inflation and puts pressure on Parishoners income.

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