Village Hall renovations – results of precept increase survey

A big thank you to everyone who responded to our loan and precept increase consultation! We received 61 survey responses in total (response rate of 25%) and the results are as follows:

92% in favour of the PC supporting the Village Hall renovations (56 responses)

8% against the PC supporting the Village Hall renovations (5 responses)

89% in favour of the associated increase in precept and council tax (54 responses)

8% against the associated increase in precept and council tax (5 responses)

3% did not answer the question about precept increase and council tax (2 responses)

The figures above give a margin of error of 11% which means the PC can be 95% confident that between 78% and 100% of all the households would support the proposal to take out a loan to support the renovations, and would support the associated increase in precept and Band D council tax.

Parish Council decision

The survey results were discussed at the PC meeting on 20th Jan, and as a majority of respondents supported the proposals, it was resolved to seek borrowing approval from the Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing, and Communities (formerly Housing, Communities, and Local Government) to apply for a PWLB loan of £7500 over the borrowing term of 10 years for the purpose of a Third Party Contribution for the Village Hall grant application to Veolia (for the final stage of Village Hall renovations). The annual repayments will come to approx. £831 (the interest rate increased slightly since the survey).

Following the formal precept increase consultation from 12th December 2021 and 7th January 2022, it is also intended to increase the Council’s precept for the purpose of loan repayments by 3% (just for the loan repayments, 9.7% total increase) which is the equivalent of an additional £831 per year (just for loan repayments). Band D Council tax equivalent will be an additional £2.99 per year (5.1% increase). The increase in band D charge attributable to the Village Hall loan repayments will be £0.93pa.

As stated in the survey fact sheet, if the Village Hall Committee is unsuccessful in their grant application with Veolia, or if the PC is unsuccessful in its loan application, the additional £831 for the first year’s loan repayments will no longer be needed. This will be held in reserve and taken into account when setting the 2023-24 budget.