Financial Year 2024/25

January 2024

Dear neighbour

RE- Precept rise announcement

 You may know that soaring costs and demands on services have forced Somerset Council to declare a financial emergency. One of the ways they’ll look to save money is by passing the responsibility for some local services down to parish and town councils such as ours.

Like every other local council across the county, we’re preparing for the unknown. We need to ensure we’ll have the staff, tools and money available to keep our town a clean, safe and enjoyable place to live and work in.

In order to handle the extra responsibilities that will come our way from Somerset Council later this year, we’ve taken the difficult decision to increase our part of your council tax bill (what’s known as the precept) from April onwards.

The actual price increase of the Ilminster precept you’ll notice will depend on the council tax band of your property. But, as an example, someone living in a Band D property will pay £1.10 more towards the work of Ilminster Town Council every week—about the price of a litre of milk. For nearly eight in every ten properties, it will cost even less. Remember, only about 8p in every £1 of your total council tax comes to Ilminster Town Council; the rest of your money goes to funding Somerset Council, the police, and other agencies. (See the first pie chart below.)

Whilst we never like having to increase our part of your bill, we’re hopeful that our town will see improvements as a result. For example, it will help us invest in some of the services you told us are important to you during our recent residents’ survey. Improvements like street cleaning, public waste and dog waste collection, grass and verge cutting, and playparks.

Not only that, by having these things overseen by a council team that is permanently based in Ilminster – rather than by workers coming in from elsewhere – we’ll have more control over quality. We’ll be able to improve and maintain the high standards our town deserves. All this in addition to the things we’re already doing, every day, to care for Herne Hill Nature Reserve, local play parks and open spaces, the cemetery and churchyard, the market and Information Centre. (See the second pie chart below.)

In the meantime, please follow Ilminster Town Council on Facebook @ilminstertowncouncil, where we’ll share updates with you as and when we have them. Please don’t forget to check your eligibility for the various Somerset Council Rate relief schemes —you may be entitled to save up to 100% off your annual council tax rates. Visit https://www.somerset.gov.uk/council-tax/council-tax-discounts-and-exemptions/ or call Somerset Council on 0300 123 2224.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at town.council@ilminster.gov.uk

You can also pop in to chat with officers at the Old Magistrates Court, East Street, on weekdays between 11am–2pm.

Thanks for your understanding and support to keep Ilminster a special place to live, work and visit.

Best wishes

Leanne Taylor, Mayor, and Mark Tredwin, Town Clerk,

on behalf of Ilminster Town Council

A copy of this letter can be downloaded here.

Ilminster Town Council have carefully considered the budget for 2024/25, to try to keep any rises in it’s element of the council tax to a minimum. Having calculated the budget for 2024/2025, Ilminster Town Council requested a precept of £506,911 which is split into the following categories:

2024/25

£175,146.00    Support Services (Admin staff, council building costs, contracts,

Christmas Lights storage, Information Centre etc.)

£294,605.00  Grounds & Maintenance  (Grounds staff, council insurance, machinery,

play equipment, street furniture, churchyard, recreation grounds, Herne Hill Nature Reserve etc.)

£8,350.00        Public Toilets (Utilities, cleaning, maintenance contracts)

£18,810.00       Cemetery (Grass cutting, trees, hedges, Cemetery Lodge, Grounds staff )

£10,000.00      Grants (Funds available to local organisations, and also funded from reserves)

Total £506,911.00

The table below shows how Ilminster Town Council’s element of the council tax has increased for 2024/2025, from £38.21 for the year for a Band A property through to £114.62 for a Band H property. 75% of homes in Ilminster fall in Band A to Band C.