Residents “should not notice any difference” in the St Neots Town Council part of their Council Tax bill for the coming financial year.
The precept has been set at £882,796 for 2014/15, which works out at £85.75 for a Band D property – up from £84.23 on the previous year, a £1.52 increase.
The council has said it will also reduce expenditure by five per cent to the lowest in five years – promising the savings will happen without cutting services or impacting on the town’s financial reserves.
Town clerk Ed Reilly said: “There is no change to the services. We did some restructuring with the staffing through natural wastage when peopleleft and we have made reductions in our administration budgets, so we have been able to deal with it. Residents should not notice any difference.”
The council had been left with an £80,000 hole on last year’s funding when Huntingdonshire District Council gave parishes one-off grants to cover money lost from the Council Tax Support Grant – funding that was cut through changes to the welfare system last year. This was £81,639 for St Neots Town Council.
Last year, the town council used the grant against its 2013/14 spend, enabling it to set a precept of £845,164 and pass the savings on to taxpayers.
The budget for 2014/15 was passed by councillors 16-1, with one abstention.
Final Council Tax bills should be known in the next few weeks after other local authorities finish setting budgets.
Cambridgeshire County Council is looking to pass a 1.99 per cent increase on its part of the Council Tax bill – by far the largest share. For a Band D property this would mean an increase of £21.87 – a total of £1,121.94.
Huntingdonshire District Council has yet to confirm its precept – last year it was £133.18 – while Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service will freeze its part of the bill at £64.26 at Band D.
Cambridgeshire police will increase its Council Tax demand by 1.96 per cent – bringing Band D to £181.42 from £177.93.
Overall, St Neots residents in Band D were last year billed £1,559.67.
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