Residents of Ross-on-Wye will pay more for the services Ross Town Council provides after its budget for the 2016/17 financial year was approved, although one Councillor, Chris Bartrum voted against it.

Members set the budget at a meeting held on Monday, January 11th. Councillor Nigel Gibbs, chair of the finance committee, presented the budget and explained that they had set the precept at £315,711 which would mean an increase of 27p per week for a Band D property.

He explained that the precept had to increase, due to the withdrawal of the support grant from Herefordshire Council, the additional monies needed to cover the additional costs for taking on the assets and to avoid taking money from reserves. He said: “Unfortunately this means we have to ask the ratepayers to pay for the services.”

Councillor Bartrum said he had never voted against a budget but he was against certain aspects such as ending the Town Council’s association with HALC, budgeting £10,000 for dead trees and cutting the amount they give to small charities and organisations in the town. He said: “We should be using the reserves to prop up the budget.” He added that according to the reasoning behind the budget, the reserves have gone down, this is not true and they have gone up. He said: “27p per week may seem a pittance but it is a 20% increase.”

Councillor Nigel Gibbs reminded Councillor Bartrum that he needed to distinguish between ‘earmarked reserves’ and ‘general reserves.’

The vote was taken with all except Cllr Bartrum in favour.

After the meeting Sarah Robson, Town Clerk said: “Members had acknowledged the challenging times and every effort had been made not to over-burden the tax-payers of Ross on Wye.

“Council Members have had to make some difficult decisions and look very closely at how to try to minimise the impact of the decision made by Herefordshire Council to withdraw £20,000 Support Grant funding to Ross-on-Wye Town Council which was part of plans to mitigate the changes imposed by Central Government on Council Tax Benefits.

“The annual budget was set at £376,228.00 an approximate increase from 2015/2016 of about 2%. The precept of £315,711.00 has risen from last year’s amount of £256,614.00 partly due to the loss of the Support Grant but also as the budget last year was agreed to run with a deficit funded by the Council’s reserves. This is not a viable long term strategy as depleting the reserves would have a potentially devastating impact in years to come. The Council has also looked closely at maximising its income and there is an expectation that over the next year this will rise by almost 50% from the values seen in 2015/2016. The good news is that although there is a slight increase in the amount that residents of Ross will have to pay, for those on a Band D the rise will be less than 30 pence a week.”

One of the key projects for Ross Town Council over the next 18 months will be to deliver a Neighbourhood Development Plan. There has already been funding of more than £20,000 over two years, and it is anticipated that applications for additional external funding will also be successful.

For further details about the Town Council’s budget, visit: www.rosstc-herefordshire.gov.uk.