Oakham Town Council Budget 2017 - 2018
Oakham Town Council will be considering its budget at next weeks meeting.
At the moment the council only provides band concerts, hanging baskets,
Christmas Lights and manages three small parks.
I would like to see the council do more for the community, so I have spoke to
the deputy leader at Rutland County Council to find how much it will cost
to reinstate the weekly youth club at Jules for the teenagers. That would be a
good start.
We no longer seek grant applications for reasons well known.
I would like to see the council filling a lot of the smaller holes being created by Rutland County
Council due to cuts imposed on them by central government.
So when my critics and fans of the Town Council say, the council does a lot, which is not true
I and other can honestly say we do.
A former member of staff once said "Oakham Town Council does little, but does that well"
Sometimes I can agree with that.
I am also seeking a budget heading to make a contribution towards the running costs
of the Rutland Citizen Advice.
It should be an interesting budget, for some unknown reason Oakham Town Council
is currently still sitting on hundreds of thousands of pounds. A situation I have never
seen before. As a parish council, the law permits us to hold limited reserves which must
be earmarked. I think mainly because a parish council can only raise a precept for what it
needs and if we need more we can demand it from the tax payers.
I have never been happy with the councils budget, it has often just been made up and then
a few years ago it was changed to a flexed budget which looking at the figures and headings
means a budget with no controls, if you over spend on one heading it does not matter because you
can just take whats needed from another heading.
Things are very slowly changing at Oakham Town Council. Who knows next year we might
even involve the residents in the setting of the budget, it is perfectly lawful for the tax paying residents to have a say on how their money should be spent by their parish council,
I found it interesting to read that a clerk can not set the budget even if they are working
with one or two members of the council. Its the members and residents job if they are
consulted.
