Making Council Tax fairer....and saving you (a little) money

The Council Tax that we all have to pay has taken an increasingly large proportion of people's wage packets over the last twenty years. From 1997-98 through to 2010-11 it increased by 47% in "real terms", i.e. by 47% over and above what you would expect if it had risen by the rate of inflation (RPI) alone.

To address this, from 2013 to 2016 the Government offered money to local authorities to help them freeze their Council Tax and also introduced a "threshold" of 2.0%. Any authority wishing to increase their Council Tax above the 2.0% threshold would have to have a referendum in their local area, to see if residents supported any proposed increase. The effect of these measures is that nationally, over the last four years, Council Tax has fallen by 11% in "real terms".

Nevertheless, we all recognise that Council Tax is still high and that local authorities must set their Council Tax responsibly.

In Snodland, your local Conservative team has supported measures to keep down Council Tax as much as possible. This is why we supported Conservative-controlled Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council's "Fairer Charging" proposals.

In the past, Snodland residents (and all residents of "parished" areas of Tonbridge & Malling) have subsidised the Council Tax payments of residents in "non-parished" areas of the Borough. This is because in areas that do not have a parish, TMBC take responsibility for all of the services that a parish would normally provide. This meant that, in addition to paying some Council Tax to Snodland Town Council (our "parish"), Snodland residents were also paying money to TMBC to run the parish services in other areas that had no Parish or Town Council. Recognising that this was unfair, TMBC gave all parishes a grant to help them pay for some of their services. In Snodland, this amounted to about £64,000.

This year, TMBC took the difficult decision to change their system so that all residents will pay a reduced basic charge for "core services", i.e. services that everyone gets, such as waste collection, and then introducing a "Local Charge" for services that are specific to that Parish alone. In Snodland, this would just mean charging for TMBC's maintenance of some public open spaces. In return for this, TMBC's element of the Council Tax would be about £16 lower than it would have been otherwise, but the Town Council would also lose their grant money and have to replace it by having a small increase in their own Council Tax.

It's easier to show the effect of this by looking at a "Band D" Council Tax bill.

In 2016-17 your annual Council Tax went to pay for services at five public bodies:
Kent Police £152.15
Kent Fire & Rescue £72.00
Kent County Council £1133.55
TMBC £192.51
Snodland Town Council £75.07
TOTAL £1625.28

The amount charged by the Police Authority, Fire Authority and KCC are outside of the control of your five local Borough councillors. KCC's finances have been crippled by the need to pay for the spiralling costs of adult social care. This means that they have no flexibility and are highly likely to increase their Council Tax by the maximum 2.0%, plus a further 2.0% which the Government have allowed this year to help pay for adult social care (although this nowhere near covers the actual cost to KCC).

Therefore, the areas that we can affect are TMBC and Snodland Town Council, both of which are Conservative controlled.

TMBC charged £192.51 last year. If it had not been for the introduction of Fairer Charging, that would have increased to £197.51 this year (a maximum of £5 increase is allowed by the Government). Assuming that TMBC follows the recommendation in its report published this week, then their charge for 2017-18 will actually be £181.61.

Snodland Town Council had intended to freeze its charge this year, leaving it at £75.07. However, to make up for the loss of grant money, it needs to increase its charge by £5.89 to £80.96.

In addition, TMBC will now need to levy a Local Charge of £5.48 for the maintenance of public spaces.

In total, this means that the charge for 2017-18 instead of being £197.51 + £75.07 (£272.58) will be £181.61 + £80.96 + £5.48 (£268.05). This represents a REDUCTION of £4.53 for all of the services provided by TMBC and Snodland Town Council.

In the recent Snodland Town Council by-election we were criticised for removing the TMBC grant to Snodland Town Council because, according to Labour, it would "add around £5.50 Council Tax to Band D properties in Snodland". This have proven to be completely incorrect. The whole purpose of making the change was to save money for residents in parished areas.

We recognise that a saving of £4.53 in the context of increases from the Police Authority, Fire Authority and KCC only makes a small difference, but we wanted to do everything that we could to help you keep more money in your pocket.

We don't yet know the exact amount that KCC and the authorities are going to charge, but we do expect them to be higher, so the total amount for all Council Tax is likely to be more than the £1625.28 for this year.

This makes it even more important we do our bit to help out the residents of Snodland.

Cllr David Lettington

Thank you for your support!

We would like to thank everyone that supported our Town Council by-election campaign and voted for James Minter in the Snodland West & Holborough Lakes ward.

The result was as below:

James Minter 380 (49%)
Labour 273 (35%)
Liberal Democrats 123 (16%)

The turnout was 16.7%.

296 votes were cast in person. 480 votes were cast by post.

Although we are obviously pleased to win, we sincerely regret that an election was called at all. All political parties (except the Lib Dems) had agreed to co-opt a new councillor instead of having an election.

This option would have cost nothing and is common practice in these circumstances.

Instead, the Town Council has now been forced to spend between £8k and £10k. Clearly, this money cannot now be spent on services in Snodland.

We are all supportive of democracy; but not at any price. We consider that the approximate £10,000 (the Borough Council has not invoiced the Town Council yet, so we don't know the exact cost) is not good value for money to elect one Town Councillor out of fifteen. The Town Council has a budget for the four-yearly cost of its elections, but the by-election was an unexpected cost.

We feel it is particularly ironic that the party who called the election came last. The Lib Dems were fully aware of the cost of an election and also fully aware that they were extremely unlikely to win. Given these circumstances, it is difficult to see why they organised for the election to take place.

All political parties need to consider how they spend tax-payers' hard-earned money, and make sure that expenditure overs value for money. We hope that should any future vacancies occur, that we can all agree to co-opt someone with the right skills to fill the post.

Introducing James Minter - our candidate in the Snodland Town Council by-election

"It is a privilege to have been selected as your Conservative candidate for the imminent by-election. I'm 52, a family man, and have worked in Sales & Marketing within the flooring industry for over 30 years. My interests include cycling and there's always a challenge in the diary which needs training for!

I relish the opportunity to represent you on our Town Council. Snodland is a fantastic place to live, with a wealth of facilities. I believe in supporting local businesses, keeping litter where it belongs(!) and want to continue Anne Moloney’s work in creating a real feeling of community."

 James Minter

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Parking at Holborough Lakes

Several residents of Holborough Lakes have contacted us regarding the recently painted double yellow lines.

We thought it would be helpful to outline what we have done to help so far, what the guiding principles of parking enforcement should be, and what some potential solutions might be.

We believe the principles of parking enforcement on Holborough  Lakes should work as follows:

On the adopted public highway parking restrictions should only be

• applied AFTER consulting residents
• used in areas where there is: high volume traffic /  a need to prevent dangerous parking / a need to maintain access to properties or to other parts of the highway / a need to maintain highway safety
• painted on the road where they match an approved Traffic Regulation Order (i.e. not in roads like Booth Close and Alisander Close where there is no Order).
• enforced by the local authority (TMBC) and NOT a private parking company
• enforced when the road markings actually match the approved order
• compliant with the law and not seek to restrict parking for commercial vehicles or reserve spaces for visitors, which is not legal

Where roads are NOT adopted, parking restrictions should be

• enforced by a private parking company based on the legal agreement between the developer and the resident 
• primarily enforced in the interests of highway safety

Lastly, no road should have lines painted and then a "retrospective" TRO sought, as this pays no regard to the outcome of public consultations.

What we have done so far:

• We have visited some residents, where they have requested us to do so, and also had email exchanges with several other residents to try and address their concerns.
• Tracey Crouch MP has written to TMBC to ask for more details of how the enforcement will occur. 
• Cllr David Lettington has written to KCC to ask who gave the instruction for the lines to be painted in areas that don't have a TRO in place, and to ask which contractor carried out the actual line painting.
• We have agreed to attend a meeting with residents, which is likely to occur in January.
• Written to the developer to ask them to clarify their claims about what they agreed with KCC (the Highway Authority who approve the TRO) and with TMBC (who will have to enforce the Order).
• Offered support to a resident who has submitted a Freedom of Information request to KCC regarding the agreement between the developer, KCC and TMBC.
• We have established the line painting was paid for by the developer, so at least it is not public money that has been wasted in painting them incorrectly.

Some potential solutions:

There is no easy solution to the current situation. TMBC cannot enforce the double-yellow lines until the markings match the TRO. Many people also feel that the markings are in the wrong place and serve no purpose except to frustrate the daily life of many residents.

Therefore, we will seek to do the following:

• Ensure that residents are given the opportunity to express their views about where there is a need for parking enforcement.
• Persuade the developer not to apply any more road markings without a Traffic Regulation Order being in place first.
• Request removal of double-yellow lines where they serve no purpose, or do not match the principles outlined above, or do not comply with an approved TRO.
• Stop the private parking company from trying to enforce on the public highway.
• The cost of any line removal should be paid for by the developer. 

We recognise that this will not solve all of the parking problems on Holborough Lakes, but we hope it is a good start. We are happy to receive further feedback from residents.

Cllr David Lettington

david_lettington@hotmail.com

Snodland Town Council by-election - the facts.

On Thursday 19th January, there will be a by-election in the Snodland West & Holborough Lakes ward to fill the vacancy on Snodland Town Council.

Some of you may have seen claims on social media that the local Conservatives didn't want a by-election (which is true), and that this is because we are anti-democratic and just wanted to fill the vacancy with another Conservative (which is not true).

We think it's important to be clear and factual - so here are the facts about the by-election:

When a "casual vacancy" occurs on a Parish (or in our case, Town) Council, the normal course of events is that the council fills the vacancy by "co-option". This is common practice and happens in parishes and towns across the country. The main reason for this is that by-elections are very expensive and they must be paid for by the council which has the vacancy. This additional expenditure always ends up being paid for by local residents.

On the day the people of Snodland gathered to pay their respects to Anne Moloney, whose untimely death resulted in the vacancy, the Snodland Lib Dems delivered the paperwork calling an election which will cost Snodland tax-payers between £8,000 and £10,000.

Via the parish element of the Council Tax, the residents of Snodland West & Holborough Lakes hand over about £150,000 a year to the Town Council. To use over £8,000 of this to pay for a by-election means that either money cannot be spent on other services in Snodland, or that the Town Council will need to put up its Council Tax charge by over 5%. 

Neither of these is fair to the residents of Snodland.

Of course, we all support democracy, but we also support the residents of Snodland being able to keep their hard-earned money.

The irony of this election being called is that it is only being supported by a party whose candidates, at the last election in the same ward, came 13th, 14th and 15th in a field of 15.

The last time a vacancy occurred on Snodland Town Council, in 2013, it was filled by co-option. I know this, because I was the co-optee. This might lead people to think that the Lib Dems are right, and the Snodland Conservatives picked "one of their own", as has been claimed, but this isn't true either. 

At the time, three people put themselves forward to be co-opted without even mentioning their party affiliation, and the Council chose the person that they thought would make the best Councillor. In fact, I had been a Lib Dem councillor between 1995 and 2011, so the Conservatives had very little reason to support me. After joining the Town Council I saw that the Conservatives were doing a fantastic job of running local services and I was pleased to be asked to stand as a Conservative in the 2015 local election.

So, although we are disappointed that there is going to be a by-election, we will take part and we will fight hard to win. We hope that the residents of Snodland will continue to support us and elect another Conservative to be part of the team that will work hard to continue to improve Snodland and make it an even better place to live.

David Lettington

The new Snodland - Burham bridge update

The new £19m Snodland - Burham road bridge has now been open since September. It appears to proving a great success, but a number of residents have contacted us asking when the road connection to Wouldham via Hall Road will be open.

There have been some difficulties with the "vehicle detection system" that is required to control the new sets of traffics lights. New equipment to fix this is being tested in the middle of December and, if the equipment is successful, then the road should be opened towards the end of January.

David Lettington