Mark Cooper In Test Valley

Romsey's Council Tax 2010-2011

The Council Tax increase this coming year for Romsey residents is £28.90...the Town Council's share is £1 a year.

Romsey Town Council's 2010-2011 Tax Band D equivalent is £33.53; last year it was £32.53.

The £1 increase is 3.07%. The budget increase is 3.88%. The difference is because the Town Council's band D equivalence figure has increased from 5,737 last year to 5,781 this year.

Hampshire's increase is 1.9% that is an increase of £19.71 a year (Band D £1018.17 to £1037.88).
Test Valley's increase is 2.5% that is an increase of £2.97 a year (Band D £118.44 to £121.41).
Hampshire Police Authority's increase is 2.9% or £4.14 a year (Band D £142.11 to £146.25).
Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority's increase is 1.8% or £1.08 a year (Band D £60.30 to £61.38).

So for Romsey Town residents the Band D increase is £28.90 a year or 56 pence a week...Romsey Town Council's share is 2 pence a week (Total Band D Council Tax rises from £1371.55 to £1400.45 an overall increase of 2.06%).

All of the increase in RTC's precept (a £1 increase brings in £5781) is to replenish the balances after paying off TVBC's loan relating to the Queen's visit in 2007 a year early: the Town Council enters 2010-2011 debt free.

How The Council Tax Increase Is Justified - 25th February 2009

Council Tax has increased again this year. It is an iniquitous tax because its not based on how much you can actually afford to pay but on how much some complete stranger has valued your house at. Pensioners are especially badly affected. Good taxes, if there is such a thing, are PROGRESIVE, In other words based on what you can afford. Bad taxes are REGRESSIVE, that is the less well off you are, the larger the proportion of income you pay in tax.

Council Tax is a regressive tax and the sooner it’s abolished the better.

The increases this year seem quite small sums when expressed as pennies per week; for example:-

Conservative Hampshire County Council is up by………… 37 pence per week.

The Police Authority is up by……………………………… …13 pence (no overall political control).

Test Valley Borough Council by……………………………... 10 pence per week (Conservative).

The Fire & Rescue Authority by……………………………… ..4 pence per week (Conservative)

Liberal Democrat controlled Romsey Town Council up by.….3 pence per week.

Doesn’t seem a lot, but at 67 pence a week (or £34.84 a year) that’s a lot of cash if you are on a fixed income.

The Council Tax bands for the Romsey Town:-

Band A £914.37
Band B £1,066.76
Band C £1,219.16
Band D £1,371.55
Band E £1,676.34
Band F £1,981.13
Band G £2,285.92
Band H £2,743.10

Test Valley Borough Council is the tax collector. However, the share of the Council tax at Band D is:-

Hampshire County Council £1018.17 (c.74.23% of the Council tax)
Hampshire Police Authority £142.11 (c.10.36%)
Test Valley Borough Council £118.44 (c 8.63%)
Hampshire Fire & rescue Service £60.30 (c. 4.40%)
Romsey Town Council £32.53 (c. 2.37%)

That should all add up to £1,371.55, that is, the Band D figure above.

The tax base of Test Valley Borough Council is 45,327 Band D equivalents which roughly coincides with the number of dwellings in Test Valley’s area. That means TVBC's income from its part of the Council Tax is £5.37 million. This is the TVBC Precept. TVBC's gross spend is £73.4 million and its gross income is £60.1 million so its shortfall is c.£12.5 million. This revenue requirement of £12.5 million is a lot more than the Council Tax raises so there are other monies coming from a business rate equalisation grant and support grant (£6.8 million) and the Andover Levy £325,476. All the authorities listed above will have an element of central government grant aid except the Town Council which has to fund itself entirely.

Duttons Road Offices must remain open - 17th February 2009

"Rumours circulating within Test Valley Borough Council that the Council will use the excuse of the recession to close down their Duttons Road, Romsey headquarters, should be scotched at once", says Romsey's County Councillor, Mark Cooper.

"The Romsey offices are eficient and fully manned and provide a valuable contact point for the public", he says. "There was a review of the need for closure some years ago, but Councillors threw out any suggestion of closure. Andover and Romsey are distinctly different and southern Test Valley residents would be alienated from TVBC by being administered solely from Andover".

Test Valley Refuses To Reduce Price Hikes - 19th January 2009

Attached is the set of meeting notes from the Economics Panel to allow you to cut and paste various bits and pieces. The panel is chaired by Lib Dem Group Leader, Len Gates, and was called to deal with the issues I had "Called-in", namely certain anomalous, well-above inflation rises in certain fees especially those relating to young people...there is a set of examples in the attached notes. Head of Leisure David Tasker and the Leisure Portfolio holder Cllr Nokes appeared before the Panel to answer questions.

The resulting notes were circulated at the TVBC Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSCOM) last Wednesday evening and so are public domain....and a fair representation of what took place.

Neither the Portfolio holder for Leisure, Cllr Nokes, nor the Head of Leisure Services at TVBC, David Tasker would concede:-

1 ...that the overall increase at 5% should be based on the actual inflation rate, currently 3%, saying that 5% was the inflation rate back in October 2008 when the initial Fees and Charges work was undertaken by TVBC officers;

2 ...and that some of the huge increases, in percentage terms, should be got rid of. They claimed that they were simply removing charging anomalies between Romsey and Andover and between TVBC and other local authorities.

I did concede that the increases in funeral charges were reasonable inasmuch as TVBC fees were significantly lower than other authorities with cemeteries.

Mr Tasker claimed the significant increase in allotment rents (this only applies in Andover... the Romsey allotments are either private or Town Council) was a response to market forces...ie demand for allotments had increased so the price mechanism should respond. I threw the argument back that if fees and charges for all TVBC's leisure activities were being priced above the inflation rate then those same market forces would lead to a decline in usage and a LOSS of revenue to the Council. At this point TVBC conceded to me that there would be a usage review in 6 months and price adjustments made at that time...(see conclusion 2) and concessions would be better targeted (see Conclusion 4).

It does seem short sighted to me to increase fees and charges at the very time when other services were reducing prices in an attempt to climb out of the recession...especially as leisure spending is one of the first things that people cut back on in an economic downturn.