Each year, much debate and analysis goes into preparing the budget. The decision to increase the annual charge is never taken lightly and we’d like to explain why this is happening. The annual charge for a band D residence in Eynsham will rise from £100.85 to £123.84; an increase of £22.99 in total, or 44p per week. This will appear as a 22.8% increase on your council tax bill, although we remain a ‘cheaper’ place to live than nearby parishes based on the 23/24 data, such as Witney, Bampton and Chipping Norton.
Why is it going up?
The number of Councillors continues to fall; we are just nine of a possible 15. As a result, we rely more heavily on our officers to complete activities. Workload has also increased due to the Village Hall now being under our management. To cope with this, we’re bringing our Deputy Clerk in full time (previously part-time).
Much like other organisations, we also continue to see rising costs in areas such as energy, materials, sub-contractor costs and salaries. We also have to find extra funds for additional responsibilities such as reinstalling and emptying a number of public waste bins in the village, previously handled by the District Council.
To try and save money on contractor fees, we’ve decided to move more maintenance activities ‘in-house’, using our own staff, which allows us to respond more efficiently to issues. To facilitate this, we will lease a vehicle for moving staff and equipment around the parish, which will reap benefits in the future.
Finally, as we increase our annual expenditure, we must also increase the reserves that we hold to cover an unexpected event (such as fixing a boiler). We have budgeted for this too.
What’s the alternative?
If we’d decided to maintain the Parish Council tax as per last year, we’d have had to reduce the work we do. We felt it was important to maintain key activities in Eynsham so have opted for a moderate rise, while seeking to find cost savings where possible.
Residents could help us by considering becoming a Councillor. Contact us to find out more about what’s involved; it’s interesting, varied and great fun! Any questions can be emailed to epc.comms@eynsham-pc.gov.uk.
This was originally published in Eynsham News March 2024