Girton Parish Council setting your precept for 2024/2025
At an Extraordinary Meeting on 17th January 2024, Girton Parish Council set the 2024/2025 precept for Girton. For 2024/2025 GPC feel that as a council we have a very clear picture of where we are with our finances and what we can achieve in the lifetime of this council. If you have any questions, please do contact us.
To view Minutes & Supporting papers for this meeting, please click below:
Draft Minutes – 17th January Extraordinary meeting
23FC/168.1 Statement made by Chair at 17th January meeting
23FC/169.2 Charges for Recreation Users for 2024/2025.
23FC/169.3 Precept request to SCDC for 2024/25
Annual Budget for additional spend 2024/2025
What is a precept?
The precept is the parish council’s share of the council tax. It is calculated as part of the Parish Council’s budget and is the amount of council tax that the billing authority collects on behalf of a parish council. The precept demand goes to the billing authority, which collects the tax for the Parish Council. The ‘Precept’ is converted into an amount per Council Tax Band that is added onto the Council Tax bill.
What is Girton Parish Council’s charge for a Band D House?
What is Girton’s precept from 2018/2019 to 2024/2025?
How did Girton Parish Council set the precept for 2024/2025?
All the committees reviewed their individual budgets in detail and signed these off. On 16th January, members of the Finance and Resource Management met at a Council workshop to review the figures and give an opportunity for questions.
94 Girton residents provided input to GPC’s precept survey. We hope to make this survey a regular occurrence and increase the information we can provide on future projects and detailed spend.
Details of GPC’s financial position at end of year will be given in our Annual Parish Meeting to be held on Wednesday, 1st May 2024.
For 2024/2025 GPC have been given a lower number of households to calculate the precept. This is per household and not per person. A reason for this is that not every household pays the precept and there may have been fewer houses built than expected or people in those houses are exempt, for example the lower paid and students. To keep the figures simple, if we were to be asking a Band D house to be paying £100 a year to Girton Parish Council, which we are not, this would amount to 28 pence per day.
What is the recent history of Girton’s precept?
Looking at historic yearly interest rates from 2018/2019 for the precept per household for Band D to see where an inflation-only increase put us in 2024/2025, it shows that the precept has lagged behind inflation, making it a tax cut in real terms up to now.
What is Girton’s precept compared with other local villages?
In 2023/2024, with a precept of value of £74.51 for a Band D house, Girton had the lowest precept per Band D house of the comparable parishes in South Cambs. Of all the 99 South Cambs parishes, Girton was 66th highest in terms of precept per household, where there is a mean value of £103.43.
How does Girton’s precept compare Nationally?
National government data on deprivation shows that Girton ward is the 32,314th least deprived area (out of 32,844) in England with an average income rank of 32,352nd (where higher rank = lower income) – See https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-019 and https://cambridgeshireinsight.org.uk/deprivation/map/. Whilst many of the areas in England do not have a parish-level layer of government (and hence no parish precept), the mean parish precept in 2023-2024 was £79.35. So, despite being one of the most affluent and well-resourced parts of England, residents have been paying a below-average parish precept. Obviously, some residents are better off than others, but that is equally the case in all other parts of the country.
What income does Girton Parish Council receive other than the precept?
As a Council we receive money from our many Recreation Ground users and use of the pavilion.
For 2024/2025, GPC will work with our Recreation users to review how much we are subsidising all the different sports groups and how much this subsidy benefits the village. GPC are also considering projects which could bring in additional revenue in future years so allowing us to keep any further increases to a minimum.
What is the planned spending for Girton Parish Council for 2024/2025?
| # | Theme | Planned Projects |
| 1 | Governance/Stepping up | Completing: Local Council Award Scheme (Foundation Award Scheme) Staff CILCA Training GPC Book of Work/Project List/3-year plan Increasingly detailed finances, budget & precept setting Completion of Asset Register |
| 2 | Community Engagement | Councillors to: visit organisations in village to understand their priorities. increase attendance at events. increase Staff accessibility in office |
| 3 | Asset Management | Parish Ranger to maintain assets throughout the village. Maintenance projects to take place throughout the village. |
| 4 | Key New Projects | Bowls Green: Club House, Toilet Block. Pavilion Refurbishment |
What Reserves does Girton Parish hold?
Girton Parish Council has reduced General Reserves and at beginning of 2024/2025 will hold 10 months of General Reserve. Significant investment has been made on facilities for Girton Bowling Green and GPC are working closely with GBC to agree terms for these facilities.
GPC currently also holds ear-marked reserves as below:
| Reserves | £ |
| Reserves: Games Surface Reserves | 21,604.41 |
| Reserves: Pavilion Fabric Reserves | 275,972.00 |
| Reserves: Play Equipment Reserve | 10,952.00 |
| Total | 308,528.41 |
And finally, please get involved in plans for your village?
Girton Pavilion Refurbishment Working group will be working hard this year to work with you in the refurbishment of your sports pavilion. We are listening and are now taking steps towards engaging you in this project. We would really like to include young people’s ideas and aspirations. It’s your future and GPC would like you to lead the way.
Please watch out for dates/times on social media about how you can get involved.