Silsden town council raises precept level (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Silsden town council raises precept level

2:52pm Monday 18th February 2013 in News

Silsden Town Council has been forced to increase its council tax precept for the first time in five years.

The need to set money aside for a potential by-election led councillors to increase their annual budget by £11,000.

The increase will see people in band D homes paying £17.66 in the financial year beginning next month, £4.10 more than this year.

The council has charged band D householders £13.56 a year for the past four years. The precept is added to the council tax bill sent to residents by Bradford Council.

Town councillor Adrian Naylor said he and fellow councillors regretted having to increase the precept.

He said Bradford Council had asked all town and parish councils in the district to add £11,800 to this year’s bill.

This was to cover the potential cost of holding a by-election if a member resigned during the year.

Coun Naylor said: "For the past ten years the agreement was that if we had a by-election, Bradford Council covered the cost."

Coun Naylor said Bradford Council was having to make millions of pounds of savings to its own budgets due to Government spending cuts.

He pointed out that the town council had covered £800 of the by-election charge from elsewhere in its own budget rather than passing it on to the council tax payer.