TEIGNBRIDGE Council is on course for a council tax increase of 2.7 per cent, putting an extra £3.57 on a Band D property, bringing the monthly bill from £132.07 to £135.64. The council is planning to stick with its inflation-only increase despite being faced with soaring costs for the concessionary bus fares scheme. Latest estimates put them at £510,000 this year and £900,000 next year above the government grant meant to pay for it.
It took Executive Committee members just 16 minutes to agree the £15.9m budget on Tuesday. The final decision will be taken by full council on February 22. The long build-up to budget-setting meant that only a few figures needed to be tweaked. One of these was the concessionary fares scheme – estimates have jumped another £177,000 in the last month.
Potential savings of £634,750 have been combed from next year's budget. Members agreed that an additional £355,000 needed to be identified from the council's procurement budget, climate change initiatives, grants and subsidies, income generation and savings expected to flow from sharing services with neighbouring authorities.
Council leader Cllr Alan Connett said they were looking to make changes where they would have least impact. This will include increasing council fees and charges by five per cent instead of three per cent. Tenants in Teignbridge private sector leased properties can expect to see their rents going up three per cent from April. On the plus side, councillors will have a pot £1,500 each to draw upon to help local community initiatives – £500 less than originally proposed. The Urban Rural Aid Fund set up for one year for small capital projects has been shaved by £10,000 from £60,000 to £50,000.
Cllr Connett had resisted calls from rural members to restrict it to less well-provisioned rural areas. But on Tuesday he proposed that urban areas should get only 10 per cent, with 90 per cent reserved for rural wards.
With fewer homeless people in bed and breakfast accommodation, £15,000 has been sliced from the budget to help encourage those whose children have left home to move into smaller social housing properties, thus freeing them up for the homeless. A capital spending programme of £13.5m was agreed to be part-funded by borrowing. After widespread anger at the closure of the toilets at Cricketfield car park, Newton Abbot, £275,000 has been included for a replacement block. Capital spending represents the council's major spending on new buildings and facilities. The budget includes £120,000 for a children's wet play area at Decoy, with work to start at the end of March. The Den is to get a £522,000 upgrade. Other major projects include the Newton Abbot pannier market refurbishment, affordable housing, asbestos removal from council properties, flood alleviation work and contaminated land remediation.