Why I voted against Council Budget

This year I chose to vote against the Town Council's proposed budget for 2020/21 as I believe funds are better used for local amenities and services than covering increasing administration costs.

This was my response I made to the proposals which were for increasing the Precept by 4.1% AND using over £13,000 of reserves to cover increasing costs.
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As our town increases in size and at the same time cuts are being made by both Basingstoke and Hampshire Councils it falls more on the Town Council to provide for our residents.

Indeed HCC said at their Parish workshop last year “It is The Age of the Parish” ie they expect Parishes to take on more responsibilities.

We have choices; to accept the situation that our services and infrastructure will suffer more, or shift focus towards making our town a better place.

Last autumn, committees were asked to look at ‘savings’ which was primarily a tightening up on housekeeping rather than ‘cuts’. That made sense - but it was not until last week that the full proposals and figures have been presented.
Quite frankly this budget scares me.

Whitchurch already has by far the highest precept in BDBC (edit – has the second highest) and is now it is likely to send the figure sky-high when compared to other parishes.
In particular the ‘Administration’ costs seem to be rocketing.

I don’t see the increase between last year’s Admin budget and next year’s being a move that will endear the Council to residents without seeing a corresponding commitment to much needed amenities and services our residents deserve.
And looking ahead it seems these costs continue to increase far above the rate of inflation.

It seems the proposal made is to use excess reserves to 'bail out’ this situation – funds that belong to the people of Whitchurch, and having accrued, should really be used for better purposes – community amenities and improvements.

In short, I do not believe we should be using reserves to prop up growing administration costs at the expense of providing improved amenities and facilities.

A year ago we were heralding a very healthy outlook yet that no longer seems the case.
I really want to be proved wrong.

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I voted against the proposals. The vote was PASSED, so I accept the result and will get on with trying to get best value for our town. That's how democracy works.

I do wonder what will happen next year.