Dear Resident,
The Town Council would like to take this opportunity to outline its precept decision, the impact, and the Council’s strategic aspirations.
What is a Precept?
The Precept is a tax that Town Council’s charge their local electors to meet their budgetary requirements.
Town Councils do not receive any direct funding from central Government and rely on their Precept, plus any other income they generate from services or facilities they provide. The Town Council Precept is part of the Council Tax and is collected from local electors via their Council Tax payments. It requests this funding from its ‘local billing authority’ – in this case, Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC).
The Precept requirement is the difference between the Town Council’s estimated income and its anticipated spending requirements for the financial year (its budget). The financial year runs from 1st April to 31st March.
Cllr D Strachan (Chairman of the Council’s Finance & General Purposes Committee)
“The Council has been able to deliver a balanced budget for the next financial year as required by law and will enable the Council to improve its service offer to the Town.
All Councils, as well as the people they serve, face difficult financial circumstances. As a Council we are mindful of our responsibilities to maintain services to the Town’s people and our budget is designed to not only maintain but improve our offer.
Officers and Councillors have had extensive consultations to set the precept at an affordable level by reducing our ongoing costs by £36,979, but there are a number of factors which have increased the Council’s expenditure, which are outside the Council’s control. Over the last five years, identified efficiencies and cost reduction amount to about £150,000.
Inflation has been calculated at 3.80% pa based on September 2025 figure. In addition, the major expense to the Council is salaries which includes the Council’s contributions to the Local Government pension scheme and the employer’s National Insurance contribution imposed by the central government.
The Council has a duty to replenish its general reserves next year back to the required level.
The Council continues to look to raise finance from available grants to reduce the impact on the precept. The Council has applied for £280,477 in supplementary grant funding to date so far and has been successful in accessing £14,4770. Although further grants are expected to be made these cannot be taken into account.
The Council have obtained information on funds still held by Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) from monies paid to CBC for the benefit of the Town and also from Government grants intended for Town Councils like ours. We are continuing to pursue discussions with CBC and the Town’s Ward Councillors to release such funds, but cannot include them in our budget for 2026/27.
In the past year, we have continued to make improvements to our recreation grounds, and completed the refurbishment of the Drove Road cemetery and chapel. The Council thanks local businesses that have sponsored town events such as the Christmas Lights and are working to seek further sponsorship for the town events and facilities.
The Council will continue to replenish its Capital Reserve Fund to £100,000 over the next 3 years to cover capital expenditure without recourse to further borrowing.
The additional public realm staff have enabled the Council to carry out improvements as well as essential maintenance to the public areas under its management and improved the quality of our cemeteries, football pitches and recreation grounds”.
What will the increase be?Â
The increase in the Town Council’s element of Council Tax for a Band D property is £7.87 for the year (a 3.39% increase), equivalent to 15p per week.
The Council will continue to review its facilities and fundraising opportunities to enable it to offer an improved service to the Town at an affordable price.
Corporate Aspirations 2025-31
The town that we serve is growing fast and there are many challenges to be addressed. Those challenges also bring opportunities, and we must make the most of those opportunities to improve our town and support our community. The Town Council is changing in order to be the best it can be in delivering our services and to be more effective in representing the vital interests of our community to others. The Corporate Aspirations 2021/2025 sets out our aspirations to enable us to achieve our goals.
If you wish to view our Corporate Aspirations 2025-31 document, please click here.
