Households must now pay £98.52 a year to fund Barnard Castle Town Council

BARNARD Castle Town Council has set a budget of £219,120 for 2017-18 – an increase of £4,949 on the current year.
Band D council tax payers in the town will see £98.52 added to their bills towards the cost of town council, up from the current £97.67.
Less than a decade ago, it was £64.
Figures presented to last week’s town council meeting showed that more than £130,000 of the budget will be spent on salaries, office rent and administrative costs, including £5,000 on gas and electricity, £1,575 on office equipment and £1,000 on telephone and broadband.
Other major items of expenditure include £11,700 on the maintenance of floral and open spaces, £11,500 on play areas, £9,000 on community events and £5,500 on the Christmas lights.
The meeting was told the budget would have been higher but for a number of changes to original spending plans.
A proposed £2,000 fund for a new youth council was cut to £500 and plans to set aside £500 to support the Barnard Castle Dementia Friendly Town initiative was scrapped.
A further £2,200 was taken out of the floral and open spaces budget. It had been included to cover costs of green areas the town council plans to take over from the county authority.
Councillors decided they would probably not need the cash as the transfer of land was likely to be a drawn-out process.
Cllr Roger Peat said the work and fundraising efforts of the town’s independent Christmas lights committee meant £1,000 could be trimmed off the proposed £6,500 earmarked for festive illuminations.
This was agreed.
Cllr Sandra Moorhouse said the £500 earmarked for the dementia friendly town initiative should be removed because the council did not have a financial donations policy anymore.
“How can we suddenly put £500 into the dementia friendly town but exclude Walkers are Welcome or any other organisation?” she asked.
On the issue of the youth council, Cllr David Kinch asked how money could be set aside for it when it did not actually exist.
“We do not have a youth council. It is a proposed youth council. Nothing has been set up. We have not even got all the documents.”
Mayor Cllr John Blissett said that while he agreed with Cllr Kinch, he anticipated the youth council would be in place come the start of the next financial year.
Cllr Kinch said there should be no funding decision on the youth council “until we have had a damned good look at it”.
However, members disagreed and decided to keep £500 in the budget for the project.
The budget was then accepted by town councillors.
l Is £98.52 a year too much or about right for town residents to pay? Email editor
@teesdalemercury.co.uk