IN RESPONSE to the letter by Tony Ferrari, published 9 Jan: The proposal from the Finance Committee to Weymouth’s Town Council (WTC) meeting this Wednesday, is to once again freeze the town council’s precept for households in Weymouth.

READ MORE: Weymouth Town Council blasted for charging nearly three times national average in tax

If approved on Wednesday, this will be the fourth year in a row that WTC has kept the amount each household pays, exactly the same. Over the same period, costs to WTC have increased every year.

As all residents will have noticed, the cost of utilities and fuel have increased significantly recently. Additionally, the annual increase in our staff salaries is agreed on a national basis by the National Joint Councils.

WTC’s staff will receive the pay increase agreed nationally, whether that is 2 per cent or 3 per cent (or the 10 per cent the Unions asked for) - your local councillors have no control over this.

If you compare Weymouth’s precept with the other town councils in Dorset (those that also have Dorset Council (DC) cutting services left, right and centre) WTC’s precept is eighth out of 21 towns. In fact, WTC’s 2021-22 band-D equivalent is only about 25 per cent above the average for town councils in Dorset, which includes several very small towns.

Households in Weymouth pay £185.69 to the town council each year. In Dorset, residents of Bridport, Gillingham, Blandford Forum, Sherborne, Sturminster Newton, Wareham and Dorchester, all currently pay between £242.76 and £198.21 to their respective town councils.

We should all be grateful that we do not live in Falmouth in Cornwall, which has the highest in England at £371.17.

As cllr Ferrari knows, WTC has increased central costs because we have brought some services in-house that were previously outsourced.

This doesn’t mean that residents are paying more, it means we are more efficient, and able to offer residents better services without increasing your bill.

WTC are also taking on some services that DC has abandoned such as benches and street furniture, and we are being asked to contribute more to Anti-Social Behaviour patrols.

We are also developing new income streams to make WTC less reliant on the precept, yet Cllr Ferrari has consistently opposed this.

The current Government’s policy of creating large Unitary Councils (like DC in 2019) is leading to ‘Super Parishes’ like Weymouth, which are having to pick-up the pieces of discretionary services abandoned by these large, cumbersome Unitary Councils.

A similar story is happening in Cornwall where, along with Falmouth, there are now 16 towns with a higher band-D equivalent than Weymouth.

It starts with little cuts like street furniture, and ASB patrols, but we know community sports at Redland Sports Hub is in DC’s cross-hairs.

Perhaps Cllr Ferrari should listen to his own advice as he’s a cabinet member of Dorset Council, and reduce our much larger DC council tax rather than raise it by the 3% planned.

Cllr Luke Wakeling, Deputy Leader at Weymouth Town Council

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