With town and parish council tax rising 30.6 per cent on the 7.46 per cent share of the total council bill which Ivybridge Town Council receives, they have brought together information from various sources such as budgets and meeting minutes to provide an explanation of how the additional funds will be used.

As in past years, they are seeing more pressure on certain budget lines, in the main, utility supply costs, food costs for The Watermark, and the implications of the employers National Insurance contribution announcement.

This building is now 16 years old and subsequently many elements installed at the time of construction are now failing.

In the parks and open spaces, they have seen a significant amount of tree work carried out following a recent detailed tree inspection, with more aboricultural work to come.

The Council has suggested the idea of taking grounds maintenance and grass cutting in-house, and the feasibility of this is to be considered in coming years.

While the council has demonstrated prudent budgeting in past years, they must now enhance their long-term financial strategy, future-proofing finances and concentrating on building up reserves.

This is absolutely vital to ensure that they have funds available for unexpected or major cost items.

Examples of upcoming large cost/major expenditure:

The Watermark:

One of the four boilers is not operating, and requires replacement, at a cost of around £6,500.

They have a recommendation that the BMS (Buildings Management System) should be replaced as it is out of date, at a cost of around £50,000.

The flooring in the coffee shop and toilets requires replacing.

The toilet facilities have recently required multiple repairs and need refreshing.

The solar panels on the roof are not operating correctly, and require invertor replacement, at a cost of around £2,500.

Town Hall;

The Town Hall houses the Ivybridge Town Council offices.

It is a public building and is regularly used by councillors, community groups and businesses.

The windows require repairing and replacement and the entrance door mechanism needs to be replaced.

Current indications are that the required repair works will cost in the region of £8,500.

As with The Watermark, the fire inspection has identified defects and omissions in fire safety.

There is no roof void fire detection or compartmentalisation to reduce fire spread, particularly in the area above the boiler flue.

Woods, Parks, Open Spaces and Woodlands Cemetery:

The additional aboricultural work required by the tree inspection, will see a cost of around £32,000 in the next financial year, and this will deplete reserves allocated for this purpose, and so contingencies need to be budgeted for future years.

The cost for this plan is approximately £2500 (+costs for any works or projects identified within the plan).

Staffing:

The Government’s announcement regarding employers National Insurance contributions has significantly impacted our budgets for next financial year.

Not only has the percentage contribution increased from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent, the threshold at which employers are to pay contributions on salaries has lowered markedly, from £9,100 down to £5,000.