Parish Council Precept 2014/15 - a message from the Council chairman:

Having had three years when the Parish Council part of your council tax has remained the same, following two years of actual reductions in the amount you paid, we have this year reluctantly decided that we must increase the amount you pay in respect of the Parish Council by 1% or 63p per year per band D property. I would like to explain to you the reason why.

Central government last year reduced the amount payable to District Councils, in our case Rushcliffe; however, rather than pass all this cut on to Parish Councils, Rushcliffe Borough Council decided to provide a temporary grant to cover most of the shortfall. Last year, we were able to absorb the reduction. However, this year, Rushcliffe decided to reduce the grant, the same again next year and probably cut it completely the year after.

In order to accommodate this cut in funding, Keyworth Parish Council has tightened up further on its spending, but we were still faced with having to increase the council tax when the grant from Rushcliffe ended. Rather than have one big increase, we decided on smaller increases over the next few years; obviously if we find these increases are not required, we will not implement them.

I would like to say that, in my opinion, Rushcliffe Borough Council has behaved honourably and generously in the face of cuts, I know that other local authorities have not provided Parish Councils with any help.

Tony Grice,

Chairman – Keyworth Parish Council