Spooner Row Message Board

For those of you not wishing to go to the website the details are provided here

May I draw your attention to the highlighted total in the bank in red and does this council envisage spending all this money next year and on what exactly ?  and why does does it need 20,000 when the annual projected budget is ( second bit in red below of 11,500 )

Your Community Council is again in the process of setting the budget for the next financial year which is paid for through your Council Tax. This charge within your Council Tax is known as the precept. As the local level of governance for your area, the Spooner Row Community Council must inform South Norfolk Council what level we wish to set our precept at for the next financial year by mid-January 2022. This precept will be paid to the Spooner Row Community Council in the financial year starting from 1st April 2022.

 At our last council meeting, held on Thursday 25th November 2021, we discussed a plan for setting the precept. As the Community Council does not meet in December, we will be finalising the Spooner Row precept at our next Council meeting to be held on Thursday 13th January 2022, to which you are all welcome to attend and put your perspective across.

The Proposal

To freeze the Spooner Row precept at £71.07, the same level per household as Financial Year 2021/2022, to produce an income of £21,747.42.

Background

The detail and calculations on how the Community Council plan to set the precept is laid out below. To put the figures above into context, last financial year Wymondham Town Council set their precept at £91.94, so your Community Council is continuing to deliver you more and at a 22.5% reduction over what you would have paid.

Annual Running Costs

Based on analysis of our monthly spend since the Community Council formed in May 2019, our annual running costs total approximately £9,112.38, as broken down in the following table. I have included the budget for Financial Year 2021/2022 for comparison.

Annual Operating Budget

Project Budget

As a council, we previously agreed in January 2020 that we needed to budget for both our running costs and also provision for future projects. To allow us to meet our objectives of [Growing Community Spirit], [Preserve Rural Nature] and [Increase Safety & Security] we need to invest in projects across our three villages. As previously briefed to Council, the indicative costs for some larger projects like the purchase of land (3.5 acres), or the provision of a 500m trod path along Station Road would cost approximately £35-40,000 per project. The Council is forecasting to have a circa £90,000 cash balance remaining at the end of FY21/22, an increase of £16,000 over the year. This has been placed in a reserve to allow up to 2 x Major Projects to be delivered without raising further resource from the precept; there are a number of projects that the Council are working towards delivery of over the next 2 years.

The following table depicts the extant annual budget cycle to provide for 1 x Major (c.£40,000) and 2 x Medium (c.£3,000) projects every 4 years; it was agreed when setting the FY21/22 budget to no longer raise money for Small (c.£1,000) projects from the precept. The annual cost to provision funds for this aspirational level of future investment in our community, would require an annual project budget of £11,500.

Annual Project Budget

The difference between the total budget £20,612.38 (Annual Running Costs of £9,112.38 and the Project Budget of £11,500) and the proposed Financial Year Precept of £21,747.42 will be used as a contingency fund for any increased unbudgeted costs.

What projects are you referring to councillor Halls because I cant see anything on the councils website only projects that have already been provided?

How many of these new projects were being put forward by you? From what I can see from its website the community council has been doing a great job in improving things after us leaving wymondham town council but your name is not linked to many of the projects done so far. I find this strange since you have been the chairman and now the vice chairman since the community Ccouncil started. Are you still a councillor on wymondham town counci

I am also happy with a price freeze.  Our boys enjoy the football goals and have used the new table tennis table.  We look forward to seeing more facilities for residents and children after being ignored by Wymondham for so long.  I seem to remember that that bit of the council tax that goes to the community council is the smallest part of our council tax bill.  On what we have seen so far it seems to be the bit that is doing some good.

Rather than divert the purpose of the consultation by grumbling about who put what project forward, followed by taking umbrage, please can  we stick to the subject of the precept? 

I would like to know more about what  projects the council intends to spend the precept on and the budget. Do we get a say? Is any of the precept contributing toward the school expansion and will this include more of the playing field? 

The community council has made much-welcomed improvements to the playing field with the extra facilities for local people to enjoy  but we also need to keep the open space. 

JH Scan Doc 001 by spoonerrow, on Flickr

JH Scan Doc 2 by spoonerrow, on Flickr

I like the look of the projects on the list and I am also happy with the price freeze.  The part we pay locally is negligible when compared to that given to South Norfolk and Norfolk County Council.  I had an interestingly time looking around the community councils website and was impressed, especially the projects page.  Congratulations to Clr Foster and those other councillors named for their hard work in getting things done for the village.  Although I did find it interesting that this thread and the website have something in common and that is a distinct lack of positive input from Mr Halls.  Do you have a list of projects to share councillor?        

Dear Andrew

Thank you for responding in an open way. It allows me to respond in a personal way and as a district councillor 

I do not like the list of projects and some are clearly impractical and in my view undeliverable in the time frame allowed , are not wanted and unecessary to say nothing of not being our responsibility

As a councillor it is my role to protect the precept ( public money) and with others agree what we can sensibly progress and do what is value for money. 

We live in a democracy, well we used to when talking nationally  , where we do not have to agree with everything proposed and certainly not agree on every issue, and I would like to see some public land space in Suton.

I also want to champion those with less disposable income and tight finances whilst we continue to suffer the consequences of the madness which is Brexit

Sorry if you feel that that my being negative , and in my view, pragmatic and sensible is a flaw but then I respect your right to hold your own views and perhaps you would do likewise . 

Anonymous, if you look at the agenda and minutes on the councils website you will see that Mr Halls and the community council did not replace the safety barrier on School Lane.  Mr Halls made contact with Norfolk County Council Highways and they replaced with it. Minimal input from the councillor then and a lack of clarity now.

Interestingly you evaded my closing question Mr Halls.

You seem to be going out of your way to rubbish these community projects before they have even been properly heard, whilst also failing to put forward projects of your own.  This thread is about the precept and such monies are to provide services for everyone in the community.  As I see it this document was meant to prompt discussion ahead of setting the precept and it is not a fait accompli.

If your argument is to reduce the precept and provide the bare minimum of services then please explain to us why you still sit on a council, Wymondham Town Council, which once had us paying one of the highest precepts in South Norfolk?  The Community Council brought us back into the middle bracket when it comes to local council tax and restored normality.

And what is the point of a community council if you are not going to provide the services expected by residents?  Has anyone complained about the goals going onto the playing field or the new table tennis table?  Of course not.  And which councillor is behind these projects, well it isn’t you is it, Mr. Halls, because if the rumour is true you voted against the table tennis proposal brought by Robert Foster.  A proposal to be part-funded by South Norfolk Council, Table Tennis England and the Community Council and the one councillor that voted against it was you.

I know Robert from walking my dogs.  I know the work he has done to bring about positive change.  It is not just the goals and table tennis table going onto the playing field or the website and the newsletter.  What about the footpath extensions outside the school and Folliard’s, the multiple dog bins around the village, and him getting together with residents to restore the bench by the pub.  All the things that could and should have been in place when Wymondham Town Council were in charge but were never done.  Tell us Mr. Halls how long have you been a councillor on Wymondham Town Council? 

I chuckled when I saw you state that it was your job to protect public money and later mentioned the need to achieve value for money, as this had me recalling a conversation with Robert a few months back.  A story about a special security key that allowed movement of the speed-activated sign around the village.  It seems that you presented a bill to the council for a second key but didn’t follow the rules.  First, you spent council money without first telling Council, then you paid several times the standard cost because you didn’t shop around and you then explained at the Council meeting that you didn’t need the new key after all because you had since found a spare in the box that the speed sign came in!

Then we have your comment that Cllr Mansell is doing the safety inspections on the playing field.  As I mentioned in my first post I spent a couple of hours reading the meeting minutes on the website.  What you should have said was he is now doing the inspections after this important role was taken away from you.  The minutes show that no reports were filed by you, damage to play equipment was missed only to then be reported by a resident, and then you had the accident to a resident’s 5-year-old grandson because the safety surfacing was slippery due to moss. 

You have held senior positions as chairman and vice-chair but appear to have achieved little on the Community Council.  You haven’t contributed to the Community Council’s website other than a couple of negative posts, I don’t remember you ever appearing on the Community Councils Nextdoor group but you are omnipresent on this anonymous website site rubbishing someone else's efforts to make things better.  I recommend that anyone with time on a rainy day take time to consider the Community Council website and read through a few of the minutes.  It will give you a better insight into what has been going on and who cares for the community, rather than those have have political careers to look after or other masters to satisfy. 

(Dear Andrew,

Thank you for your message. Please note that this is not an "anonymous website" as posters are welcome to provide their names if they so wish. Posting anonymously is an option.

Can I suggest that you attend the Community Council meetings or speak with Cllr Halls directly with your comments so that a solution can be achieved.

Webstation)

-- Edited by webstation on Monday 20th of December 2021 11:52:55 PM

Proposal for Pavilion on playing field:

Robert Foster is running a poll to consider a pavilion on the playing field in 2022. The price guide is £16,800 (on the Precept Project List above, it says £24,000). The measurements are 5.2m x 4m. Your comments can also be placed on here as several members of the Council often visit this message board. 

(This has been amended at the request of the Community Council.  Webstation)

-- Edited by webstation on Thursday 6th of January 2022 04:49:51 PM

I cannot find this poll anywhere on Spooner row councils web site. has it already been closed?

I don't like Nextdoor and don't intend to register to use it. Will I be excluded from the poll? Why isn't this poll on the local council's website, which our precept pays someone to host no doubt?

If. Rob Foster is so keen to waste OUR money on glorified sheds,That are a total waste of money!

Then best he posts leaflets through everybody’s door ,so we are all aware.As a lot of us in the village DO NOT look at any of these sites.

It is totally unfair to try and hush things through on a site a handful of people look at.

Lets rember WE voted this council in,FOR the good of the village.

STOP wasting my  money on  silly projects.Or is there a hidden agenda at work!

Can we have a village wide poll to decide if the playing field gets prtotection as a village green? This seems to have been swept under the carpet. We don't want loads more buildings - house/school expansion on this site.

The Community Council will be discussing and setting the precept at its meeting this Thursday 13th January. The intention is to freeze it at the current rate. You can make your comments on this and the proposed projects (see list above) on the Council's website (Grapevine) or comments can be left on here as several councillors visit this site and they can extract what they need. You can also attend Thursday's Council meeting.