24/25 LEPC Budgeting Process - Have you say in how your money is spent!
Together with all parish councils LEPC are required to submit their budgeted expenditure for the year commencing 1/4/2025 to UDC by 22/1/2025. The budget will drive LEPC’s precept which will appear on all Council Tax bills issued by mid-March. Although the precept is a relatively small element of individual tax bills it is nonetheless vital that we budget accurately to ensure the parish’s needs are met for both recurring and non-recurring expenditure.
Recurring expenditure is regular annual expenditure that is necessary for the ongoing needs of the parish. E.g. Clerk’s office, playing field, playground & general parish maintenance, street lighting and insurance. Although in the long run no expenditure is fixed, recurring expenditure cannot be easily halted without some negative impact on the parish. Therefore, in this regard, LEPC’s primary role is to ensure long-term value-for-money.
Non-recurring expenditure is one-time project expenditure not expected to be repeated for several years, if at all, (Although a one-time expenditure may incur future recurring expenditure such as maintenance.) E.g. War Memorial refurbishment, new benches, digital speed signs and playground apparatus.
LEPC are seeking ideas for non-recurring project expenditure from parishioners. What project(s) would you like to occur for the parish?
An easy answer would be to state that there should be no project expenditure because it would reduce the Council Tax bill, but with the increasing level of housebuilding in the area that would be a short-termist answer undoubtedly regretted over future years. LEPC believes the parish needs to plan and provide amenities for current and future residents and we need to start doing that now.
All ideas are welcome, Nothing is outlandish. Some ideas may be beyond LEPC’s powers to implement, others may be prohibitively expensive. But impossible ideas may spawn possible ones.
The next LEPC meeting will be held at 7:00pm on Wednesday 27th November at the Memorial Hall where a draft budget will be presented. Please send your ideas to the Parish Clerk this week.
