There was good news for local taxpayers at this week’s meeting of Reepham Town Council. Councillors voted unanimously to keep the local precept for the 2016/17 financial year at around £99,400 – the same level as the current year.
The Town Council gets its funding by receiving a small amount of the local Council Tax collected by Broadland District Council.
This “parish precept” is a tax charged on each property in Reepham parish to fund the Town Council, which has financial responsibility for the Town Hall and Stimpson’s Piece (as sole trustees), the cemeteries, the allotments, the Market Place and 127 street lights.
The Council is also responsible for churchyard maintenance, the wall around the churchyard and the “pound” area, the play areas on Stimpson’s Piece and Overton Way, and a small part of Whitwell Common, and has management responsibility for the public toilets in Pudding Pie Alley and the car park on Station Road.
For 2016/17, the Council estimates its income at around £129,000 with expenditure of £110,000; it constantly seeks to reduce expenditure wherever possible. With current reserves of around £35,000, the Town Council allocates a small amount of funding each year to local groups for community projects.
At the December Council meeting, town councillors also expressed their support for a new ATM in the Market Place, but said their preferred location is the existing telephone kiosk outside the Bircham Centre.
They recorded no objection to BT’s planning application (20151835) to install a combined public payphone and cash machine on Townsend Corner, subject to highways and conservation issues. However, concerns were raised over road and pedestrian safety at this location.
See our earlier story: