The end of the year usually brings forward the funding requests from Parish Councils and Berkhamsted Town Council is no different.
The ‘precept’ for 2004/05 will be in excess of £180,000 - about £100,000 more than when I set the precept requirements just 5/7 years ago.

It got me thinking about what the town gets for this additional money in a year. Apart from additional staff, it’s actually difficult to find much. I’ve asked around and, without exception, no one else can actually think of anything. Mind you, faulty street lights and potholes abound, but they are County Council responsibilities. In fact, apart from being a ‘consultee’ on many matters (like the Citizens Association - much cheaper), having to spend Parish Paths funding (without much success) and looking after the allotments and duplicating services provided by the Borough Council, it really is difficult to see exactly how they justify this additional demand on our purse.

I must admit, when I was elected as an Independent member of the Council in 1995, I was surprised to find that there was no limit on how much money Parish Councils could actually raise, providing it was actually spent for the benefit of residents. So we did actually start a program of building up funds to carry out projects that others were not interested in doing. The LibDems criticised us for this policy even though the previous Conservative administration neglected the town having sold the assets to ‘Big Bad Borough’ in 1974. At least we started to achieve change for the better and introduced much more open local government.

Compare with the current LibDem controlled Town Council who over the past 5 years seems to have raised more and more money to be spent on projects that local residents do not seem to have noticed. The number of meetings the Council holds which the public have reasonable notice is given to attend has reduced over this time and indeed, it has been suggested that only full meetings of the Council should be publicly announced. I have been told that the Council bank account is bulging, so perhaps they are still trying to find things to spend our money on.

This lack of democracy is not confined to just our Town Council. The Borough Council has gone even further, by saying it’s not their fault, they are only doing national governments bidding by speeding up the processes. Just 8 out of 52 elected representatives make all the decisions. Everyone else just toes the line and does what they are told. They even promised that additional housing would not be built on the Manor Estate in Apsley. But that was before the election. Now it’s ‘we have to build additional houses on the Manor Estate and we just do what the Inspector says’.