Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council defends precept tax rise of more than 27 per cent

The precept requirement for this local authority has been historically lower than town councils in places such as Alnwick and Morpeth – and this will remain the case.

And the reasons given by the Berwick council for raising the 2023/24 amount to £346,963 from £269,581 in 2022/23, which means the average Band D household will pay £99.94 (£8.33 a month and £1.92 per week), include the rising cost of fuel and utilities and wages costs that have gone up due to a national pay agreement, as well as a decline in the income it receives from other sources.

But the scale of the increase that will see Band D households have to fork out £21.32 more than the previous 12 months has led to half a dozen Berwick residents contacting the Gazette to say how unhappy they are with the councillors’ decision and their comments include the following.

Richard Clay said: “I regard the imposition of a 27.1 per cent increase in council tax funding for the town council as totally unacceptable and something that requires urgent justification to council tax payers, especially in these times of economic difficulty for so many residents.”

Phil Smith said: “It is disgraceful that such a significant increase in the running costs of Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council has been pushed through without any consultation with the people that have to pay it.”

Eric Deighton said: “What justification can there be for a town council tax rate increase of three times the rate of inflation?”

A statement on behalf of Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council says: “As a town council, we are acutely aware of the impact any tax change has on residents. We’re also aware of how worrying large percentage figures can look in comments or criticism of the town council.

“The town council’s precept makes up just 4.4 per cent of the average Band D council tax bill; the total paid to the town council from each Band D household is £1.92 per week as opposed to £38.17 to Northumberland County Council (NCC) and £3.24 to the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).

“These comparisons are relevant because many of the services paid for out of the town council precept are services formerly provided by NCC, such as play parks, allotments and benches, or which residents might expect to be funded by the PCC, such as the CCTV police use in Berwick.

“Other services which we support that were formerly funded by NCC include tourism services delivered via VisitBerwick.com and evening bus services around the town.

“Many of those services would, without the town council, either cease to exist or be charged to residents as a special expense on their council tax bills, as has happened in North Sunderland for instance.

“The cost of providing services has risen in the last year, just as costs have risen for households. The cost of fuel and utilities has risen exponentially, as has the cost of any materials which are delivered by road.

“Wages costs, which are mandated by a national pay agreement, rose by around 10 per cent overall and disproportionately affected small councils with a majority of low paid staff, like Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council.

“The council’s budget has also been hit by a decline in the income it receives from other sources which the town council does not control; unlike most parish councils approximately a third of Berwick's income comes from those sources and the need to cope with a decline in that income accounts for almost half the increase (approximately 40 per cent) in the precept requirement.

“The town council has conducted all its discussions on this matter in public and has published all the papers on which it has based its decisions.

“We would always like to have more public engagement, but the degree of consultation we undertook was appropriate for a council of our size and proportionate to the impact our decisions have on household budgets.”