Disclaimer: These observations are not the ‘official’ minutes of the meeting, these are supplied by Whittlesey Town Council, normally (1) month following the meeting and can be viewed on their website.
The agenda was posted below…. Highlights from the meeting.
Finance & Policy Committee
1/ It was ‘proposed’ that the annual precept (Council Tax) for Whittlesey Town Council be frozen at last years level.
So this ‘sounds’ very good news – however – the WTC element of ‘our’ Community Tax is pretty small…
You can bet that the Cambs County Council, Fenland District Council, Police & Crime Commissioner, Fire Authority – Uncle Tom Cobley and all will be wanting to increase our local taxation. Or maybe just being slightly cynical (really) local elections coming next year may have some bearing on how much our local rates go up.
2/ Dr Trevor Evans, the Chairman of Rural Cambs Citizens Advice Bureau gave a very good talk on the work the CAB are doing in our area.
In the first 6 months of the year:-
106 clients seen at Whittlesey Library on a Friday morning.
9 None Whittlesey clients seen.
62 clients seen at other area’s ie Internet Gateway or Telephone consultation.
It is estimates that by the end of the year (April) CAB will see 325 people at the Whittlesey drop-in sessions. Some 1,700 different issues being dealt with, people tend to come with 1 issue and end up with 5 or 6 other problems.
Most issues were:- Benefits, Debt, Managing Finances and Council Tax Arrears.
The most challenging coming is that of ‘Universal Credit’ which I posted on a few days ago.
Whittlesey Town Council make a quarterly contribution towards the running costs of the CAB.
3/ A healthy state of council finances for the time of year, it was stated that there should be a surplus of funds by the end of the financial year.
4/ There was some on-going discussion about financing FDC’s CCTV system and that several councillors were yet to visit the facility. It was stated that FDC had spent some £200,000 upgrading the system.
I had pointed out to councillors prior to the meeting, that the CCTV camera covering the Bus Stop/Grosvenor Road and part of the Co-Op, was that full of condensation that I doubt if it would see a great deal – I have check it since and it has got ‘slightly’ better – remember – blame the weather?
5/ Community Road Watch – their statistics and reading were presented to the Police & Crime Commissioner for comment and ‘action’
