Agonising over a budget - fiscal prudence in a time of austerity

Alright, for those of you who serve on rather more high-powered local authorities than Creeting St Peter Parish Council (and in truth, if any of you are elected to a local authority, your budget is bound to be bigger than mine - in some cases by multiples of 100,000), my dilemma is a familiar one. However, that doesn't make it any easier.

This evening, the Parish Council meets to consider a draft budget for next year, and I have my concerns. Our precept is currently £4000, which amounts to £38.45 per household (yes, we really are that small), and we have generous reserves, currently equivalent to a year's spending. On the downside, nearly 70% of that precept goes towards staffing costs, and we are vulnerable to unexpected one-off charges. As an example, if an election were to be called to fill a vacancy on the Parish Council, the cost would be £432 (216 electors @ £2 each). I accept that we don't have elections - competition would be a fine thing - but we need to hold funds just in case the village went democracy crazy and hordes of candidates suddenly came forward.

It's the lack of data that causes me to fret. Is £340 for grass-cutting a good deal or not? What potential increase in costs for street lighting should we allow for? Indeed, is it sensible for a Parish Council of our size to make charitable donations? Given that the combined length of service of two out of our three councillors is less than a year, on what basis can we decide? This is where our Parish Clerk is important, and although she has only been engaged since 1 April, she is very experienced.

My personal aim is to, at worst, freeze the precept for 2010/11, although if I can cut it, I will. Yes, a 1% cut will put just 38 pence a year back in the pockets of each household, but in a time of austerity, it sends a signal out to council taxpayers that we are cutting our cloth to reflect what they are experiencing.

We'll see what happens this evening...