Rother District Council (RDC) has opened this year’s consultation on the potential changes to your Council Tax charge.
This year RDC has framed the discussion in terms of the decline in its central government grant. The amount the Council will receive in general grants from central government will substantially decline from £450,000 this year to £72,500 next year. Rother has offered up three options within its consultation, but all allude to some form of cuts to the services it provides:
- Continue to raise the Council Tax each year by £5 based on a Band D Property. This will help bridge some of the funding gap but savings would still need to be made.
- Raise the Council Tax by less than £5. That would fill some the funding gap but RDC would have to find additional savings from the services it delivers.
- Freeze the Council Tax at its current level. A freeze would mean RDC would have to find all the additional savings from the services it currently delivers.
It is worth noting that Rother has discounted the idea of raising Council Tax by more than £5.
Thinking further ahead to 2020, as RDC has in its Rother 2020’s strategy, the government had said that it will be the last year in which Rother will receive the government's general grant. Therefore Rother is looking to deliver a total of £1.8m of savings by 2020 to help balance its budget.
At a recent discussion on the future of the Landgate, Rother made it clear that it wants to transfer its ownership from the Council to a third party. In recent years a number of other assets have been transferred from Rother’s control to locally managed community groups, such as the allotments on South Undercliff and Love Lane, and Ypres Tower, now forming one of the two locations for the Rye Museum.
The Council states that it is "keen to look at all opportunities to draw in funding to help deliver services and maintain assets. Alternative ways of delivering services and transferring assets are also being pursued in the context of severe financial challenges."
We at Rye News decided to look at what other assets Rother owns across the town and speculate on their future.
- Rother owns and maintains most of the public toilets in town including those at the railway station, Strand Quay, Fishmarket Road, Gun Gardens and at Rye Harbour Road. It is fairly safe to assume that these will be high on the wish list for disposal as has happened across the country. It is also fairly safe to assume that if this were to happen then charging to use them would most likely be introduced.
- At the opposite end of the spectrum are the car parks. While Rye has a confusing patchwork of car park ownership, Rother owns a number of car parks, and in some cases the land adjacent to them. These include Lucknow Place and Bedford Place car parks both on Fishmarket Road, Cinque Ports Street car park, Strand Quay car park, Gibbet Marsh car park, the swimming pool car park and the Gun Gardens car park. As these all generate income it is fairly safe to assume that these will not be transferred from Rother’s ownership.
- Other assets owned by Rother include plots of land and buildings that provide a community function. In addition to owning the Leisure Centre and Rye cemetery, Rother owns the Salts, including the Club House on the Middle Salts which is used by the Bowls Club, and the Scout Clubhouse off The Grove. One can but speculate on the future of buildings in Rother's ownership if they aren't generating enough revenue to cover their cost and if they are only used intermittently through the year.
While it is hard to predict the future, it is safe to say that if the squeeze on Rother’s finances continues, and even if we pay more in Council Tax, we can still expect to see further changes to the services they provide.
You have until Friday January 5 to respond to Rother’s Council Tax consultation.
Graphs courtesy of Rother District Council
Graphs courtesy of Rother District Council
