Melksham Without Parish Council

Accounts, Audit, Budget & Compliance to Transparency Code

Annual Reports 2021/22

Parish and Town Councils must publish an Annual Return that includes a summary of their income and expenditure; its assets and other balances. They also have to complete an Annual Governance statement setting out the arrangements they have in place to ensure that the council and its business is properly managed. Each year those documents have to be reviewed by the appointed external auditor.

The council's Year End Accounts
Report on compliance to the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 and Spend over £500

The parish council publishes all income and expenditure as an appendix to it's Full Council meeting minutes (published monthy under the minute section of this website) which shows more detail than the appendix to this report which lists expenditure over £500.

Details of the Council's income and expenditure of Solar Farm Community Funding and CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) are included as a separate statement in the published Year End Accounts.

Budget 2021/22

Melksham Without Parish Council have agreed to a reduction in Precept of 1.5% for 2021/22 whilst maintaining all services and continuing with existing projects. To have kept the Precept at the previous level would have meant an increase of £3 a year on the average charge to residents due to the transfer of around 100 houses from the parish area to the Town. This is a consequence of the recent Community Governance Review as there will be less households in the parish to contribute. The reduction in Precept will cut that increase back to £1.78 per year, with residents paying an extra 3½ pence per week for Parish services and facilities.

The Budget for 2021/22 was agreed at the Full Council meeting held on Monday 25th January 2021. The Council unanimously agreed to set its Precept – the proportion of Council Tax paid to the Parish Council - at £217,977.05 for the 2021/22 financial year, which is a decrease of £3,256.95 (-1.5%) on last year’s Precept. This means that the average Band D household will contribute £82.11 to Melksham Without Parish Council, a rise of £1.78 on last year, which is a 2.21% rise. Band D properties are used as a measure of the national average, and some households will see a smaller or bigger increase, based on their Band rating for Council Tax.

The parish council run a number of facilities and services in the parish from this Precept funding and support a number of community ventures in both the parish as well as those in the Town and villages outside the Parish. It currently runs and maintains five play areas (Berryfield, Shaw, Beanacre and Kestrel Court & Hornchurch Road in Bowerhill) with two more to be taken on from the developers in the new housing developments in the Bellway development on Semington Road and the Taylor Wimpey development in Pathfinder Place, Bowerhill. In addition, it also owns two playing fields, one in Bowerhill and one in Shaw (The Beeches). The parish council took on some additional grasscutting last year, on public open space owned by Wiltshire Council, to improve the cutting in some areas and for wildflower meadow areas in patches on the public open spaces. The parish council has two allotment sites, both in Berryfield, which have almost full occupancy of 70+ tenants at present.

The parish council contributes to a variety of joint ventures with Melksham Town Council such as the Melksham Neighbourhood Plan, development of Shurnhold Fields mini country park and the public toilets in the Market Place. It is also contributing towards new furniture for the new café and plaza at the Melksham Railway Station. As well as joint ventures, the parish council provides grant funding (£26,230 in the current financial year with a higher amount budgeted for next year). These grants provide valuable funding for all the village halls in the parish; Shaw, Bowerhill, Whitley Reading Rooms and the temporary hall in Berryfield as well as wide spread of clubs, support groups, and organisations that provide sporting activities, village publications, events, and activities for young and old. The grants are for those organisations that benefit the residents of Melksham Without, so are not all contained in the parish, some are based in the Town or in other villages outside the parish. £1,000 was donated to the Melksham Foodbank in October to support the good work they have been doing supporting residents during the Covid pandemic and resulting lockdown restrictions.

The Parish Council has received additional funding from the Government’s CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) scheme which is a levy directly on new housing developments in the parish. When budget setting the Council have not put money into Reserves for future projects that could be paid for from CIL and will look to use the CIL funding for a variety of infrastructure projects including the development and kitting out of a new village hall in Berryfield in association with the approved planning application of 150 houses in Land to the east of Semington Road. All the CIL received to date from the 450 houses East of Spa Road (The Acorns/Hunters Wood) will be transferred to the Town Council in the next financial year; this is £315,000 which the parish council have earmarked for several years for the construction of a new community centre, east of Melksham.

The community funding received from Sandridge Solar Farm has been used this year, and for next, to fund cleaning of the play areas’ safety surfacing, tree works, pavement Weedspraying, new street furniture and the fortnightly installation of the Speed Indicator device across the parish.

Other budgeted items are for highway improvement projects working with Wiltshire Council’s CATG (Community Area Transport Group), a new bus shelter on Falcon Way, Bowerhill, play area repairs and additional outdoor exercise equipment at Shaw Playing Field.

A copy of the Minutes of the Parish Council’s Finance Committee meeting (11th January) when the Budget and Precept were discussed in detail is available to view by clicking on the Finance Committee link below.

Finance Committee meeting 11th January minutes

Budget 2021/22

For those not online, a copy can also be obtained by contacting officers on 01225 705700 or by email clerk@melkshamwithout-pc.gov.uk

Serving rural communities around Melksham