Ramsgate Town Council Precept 2018

Ramsgate Town Council (RTC) funds most of its activities by means of the precept. This is the part of your Council tax bill, which refers to Ramsgate Town Council.

The Council has approved an increase in the precept which is to last 2 years and will rise to £61.92 per year for a band D house. However, 81% of all dwellings in Ramsgate fall within bands A and B.

The rise has been necessary because RTC has lost discretionary funding from Thanet District Council totalling £21,000 and its share of a central government support grant of £64,533.

This adds up to an 11% cut in funding, which is significant for a Council that represents a Town with several wards with significant deprivation indices.

Furthermore because of the way that council tax is levied; Ramsgate loses over 30p in every pound raised to rebates and discounts, which hitherto were paid by central government. This means that richer towns with larger houses within their boundaries can raise more money on the same precept.

Even allowing for this drawback, RTC still levies a lower precept than nearly all equivalent sized Councils in Kent and elsewhere. The precept increases by £9.99 per annum or 19.2p per week. Overall the entire precept is still less than a tank of fuel in the average motor car, per year.

What are we going to do with money? Even after funding the shortfall, RTC will be out there carrying out more restorative work to improve the look and condition of the Town. The same number of administrative staff that RTC has employed in the last 8 years will oversee more regenerative work, but RTC intends to employ another lengthsman and apprentice to carry out an increasing amount of physical work.

The general public will see more activity where it counts, in maintenance, street cleaning and ground work, supplementing the services already provided by Thanet District Council.

The Council has set this figure to last 2 years and therefore this figure will not change irrespective of increases in inflation etc.

Written by:
Richard Styles,
Town Clerk