A parish council is so flush with cash it will not be putting up the tax it charges residents, despite expecting a lower income next year.
Cockfield Parish Council heard during its latest meeting that it is unlikely to get a local council tax reduction grant of about £1,500 from Durham County Council next year.
Last year, the council received a precept of £28,478, which included the annual grant as well as the parish tax that residents paid.
Clerk to the parish council Philip Howard told members if the residents’ tax remained the same then the income would fall to £26,944. To maintain the same income the parish council would have to raise residents’ tax by about £4 a year.
Currently households living in a band D home in the village pay £62.56.
Mr Howard said: “If the council wants the same amount of cash as last year, then the band D charge would have to go up to £66.12, which is a 5.69 per cent increase. But there is quite a lot of money in the bank at the moment. There is over £75,000.
“If the council isn’t spending a fair amount of money this year, the auditors are quite likely to ask, ‘why have you got so much money in the bank’.”
However, he noted that the parish council is planning for some major expenses in the coming year, including planned repairs to a boundary wall at the allotments and £15,000 for outdoor gym equipment. There are also plans to upgrade the playpark facilities.
Cllr Neville Singleton noted that households in Cockfield had among the lowest parish tax in the area, and a £4 increase for the year was not much.
However, Cllr David Britton disagreed. He said: “I don’t think we should increase it, times are hard for people at the minute. We are losing about £1,500 for the year, I think we can take that on the chin.”
Cllr Graham Smith added: “Do we really want to be increasing the precept for a household when we don’t have to? I don’t think we can justify an increase, no matter what it is.”
The council agreed unanimously not to increase residents’ tax next year.
Cllr Singleton warned that the parish council needed to have at least £20,000 in its reserves in case of unforeseen expenses such as the cost of an election if called, which can run into several thousand pounds.
