The Parish Council is financed by the ‘precept’. It is a ‘national’ local tax that only applies to a specific authority area, for example Stanwick. It is collected by North Northants Council with the other local taxes due, such as council tax, Police Fire & Crime levy.
The precept is collected according to the ‘banding’ of council tax on properties between April and January in 10 monthly installments.
Each year the Parish Council looks at its financial position and sets a budget for the coming year before working out how much the precept as a total figure should be.
The amount of precept in Stanwick has remained at the same level since the financial year 2019-20.
During the current financial year, 2022 to 2023, the Parish Council has incurred significant one off costs including repairs to the church boundary wall (£12,100.00), repairs to the path from Spencer Parade and Mansfield Street (£4214.00), repairs to the safer surfacing under the play equipment at the recreation ground (£4517.00) in addition to our expected costs.
The Parish Council has made the decision to increase the total amount of precept for the coming financial year. We know that with rising inflation everything is costing more and this will increase our ground maintenance costs and repair bills. We know that we are likely to have significant repair bills for the church path. We need to set money aside for future repairs costs.
On paper, the total percentage increase of the precepts looks very large, but in reality taken as an average across all households, it equals approximately £1.30 per house per month extra. It should be acknowledged that the Stanwick precept has not increased for the past four tax years and this increase is also, in part, due to the fact the level has been held down since 2019.
Any person having difficulty with making their council tax payments should speak to North Northants Council as the Parish Council is not involved in collecting the money due.