Local Elections: East Ward

With the expansion of the Priory Park ward at District level there was created a new Town Council ward of East. This covers the area of Love's Farm at Town level and is within the District ward. Confusing huh. But this allows a unique opportunity in St Neots. With this being a single member ward this is very easy for a single person to fight an election.

The candidates for this seat are:

The only Independent in St Neots is the Chairman of Love's Farm Community Association. I wish Carl good luck.

A little confusion....

I always wondered in which District ward Love's Farm was in. Looking at the Election Maps website I found this:

This had the Love's Farm in Gransden and The Offords Ward. I therefore wrote to the Electoral Services Department at HDC and received this reply:

"This development does fall with Gransden and the Offords Ward not Priory Park.  I will check with our web people as to the state of the maps."

Having been informed by HDC that Love's Farm development was in the Gransden and The Offords ward. Then there was a bit of a spat on the St Neots Forum which said Love's Farm was in the Priory Park ward.

Later I found the following changes on the Election Maps website:

So the Election Maps website has changed its website to show Love's Farm in the Priory Park ward.

Anger over funds switch proposal

St Neots News and Crier - 10/02/2011 digital edition

What I don't understand about all this is so what. The funds for an Eynesbury Community Centre is only £60,000. The Town Council is looking to build this community centre on the other side of the railway with developer money. Hardly accessible for the residents of Eynesbury. Nor is it really a community hub for Eynesbury not being in Eynesbury at all.

Whilst the idea of spending the money on the community run Love's Farm centre could be seen as a good idea, making Town Council funds available for this project is whistling in the dark.

The plans, cost and funding needs to be looked into. I would be looking towards something like Jubilee Hall, a basic wooden community hall with no frills. The £340,000 from developers would allow this.

I can understand why Cllr van de Kerkhove wants the money to be allocated. This makes a statement of intention of providing a community centre for Eynesbury. If, as Cllr Chapman indicates, the money will be just sitting there, this will mean an argument can be had if the Love's Farm community association come looking for the Town Council for money.

Are the reasons behind all this political? The new Town Council East Ward, with one member, which covers Love's Farm could be the majority for the Conservatives if the Town Council election on 5th May 2011 are tight. There are scenarios where the Conservatives can only achieve a majority by winning the East Ward. The same could be said for the money being allocated to Eynesbury by the Liberal Democrats who need to win all 7 seats here.

More Community Centres!

So Cllrs Bob Farrer, David Harty and Barry Chapman have joined together to bring forward a plan to build a community centre in Love's Farm. Good for them if they are going to build and run a community centre themselves.

On the other hand if they are going down the route of building this themselves and then expecting the Town Council to own, run and pay for the facility then they are wrong.

There is a whole load more development due to the east of St Neots. So why is there a need for a community centre on this site? At this rate the new developments could have three separate community centres. More than the rest of St Neots put together!

There is roughly £350,000 and a piece of land for a community centre to be built on. £350,000 won't go that far. The Conservatives need more money to make a fist of this. But don't get too carried away with all this hype. Cllrs Chapman and Harty were on the Committee and/or Working Party building the Eatons Community Centre. At least they have the experience of how it can all go so wrong.

This isn't how Town Councils should work. The whole reason for having officers and professional support is they do the work. With Councillors seemingly going off at tangents I have gained the impression there is a power vacuum in the Town Council. This is not the staffs fault and must be laid at those Councillors currently in charge and mainly at those who were in charge (Cllr Giles and Thorpe).

Likely St Neots Council Tax increases.

With 2010/11 Council Tax (CT) setting getting towards its final stage I thought I would take a look at the likely final outcome. These are the Band D amounts. Band D represents the percentage increases so whichever Band your property is in these are the increases. I have divided up the Council Tax into their constituent amounts. I have three different totals as two annexed areas will be joining SNTC area on 1st April 2010.

St Neots: 2.53% increase. This is smaller than the 2.95% sub total because SNTC was able to cut its portion of the CT with all the new money from the annexed areas.

ex Eynesbury Hardwicke: On 1st April 2010 the Town Ward of Eynesbury Hardwicke Parish is annexed. CT payers currently pay zero in the Parish portion. On joining SNTC they will liable for SNTC CT rates. To go from zero to £84.24 (Band D) is an infinite percentage. All this extra money SNTC gets has gone mainly to cover increased spending and some to reduce the CT.

Love's Farm: On 1st April 2010 Love's Farm part of St Neots Rural Parish Council is annexed. CT payers at Band D will see there current Parish CT of £16.95 rise to the SNTC rate of £84.24. This represents a 397% rise. All this extra money SNTC gets has gone mainly to cover increased spending and some to reduce the CT.

SNTC should send a welcome letter to the annexed residents.

With the Town Council budget passed I feel it is would be good if one of the first actions of SNTC is to welcome the new residents from 1st April 2010 to St. Neots. I would strongly suggest this is done by a letter or leaflet to each house affected by this annexation.

Otherwise, come March, when the new Council Tax bill start dropping on the doormats then there will be little explosions as residents find out how much they will have to pay. Those residents from Eynesbury Hardwicke will see the
Parish/Town part of theirCouncil Tax bill rise from 0 to £84.24 Band D (infinite % increase). Whilst the Love's Farm residents will see their Band D Council Tax rise from £16.95 to £84.24. This equates to a 397% increase.

Priorities magazine - Priority for SNTC to sweep the bad news under the carpet

The SNTC propaganda rag - Priorites - was found on my door mat when I got home. Reading through the glowing propaganda I don't see anything about the damning external auditors report for 2007/08. Nor was there anything explaining about the second damning auditors report received this time for 2008/09.

There was a full page dedicated to the Xmas Lights Switch-On. Nothing about the report into the incident when the Xmas lights fell down.

There is also an article on community programmes in the Love's Farm development. But why is this article in this propaganda rag? Love's Farm is still within the Rural Parish and is separate for Council Tax. So is this propaganda rag being delivered into Love's Farm? If so, which Council is paying for this? Is it the highly taxed Town council taxpayer or the low taxed Rural council taxpayer?

I feel we should be told!

The Priority of this propaganda rag is to sweep all the bad news under the carpet. Again this Liberal Democrat run Town Council is not being transparent about what is happening under its auspices.

Less Tax! NOT more new facilities.

In April 2011, the new development at Love's Farm will be annexed by St Neots Town Council. At the same time the Town Ward of Eynesbury Hardwicke (gray shaded area in the picture) will also be annexed. Other designated development land to the east of the railway bounded by the A428 will also be annexed. St Neots will lose some land west of the A1 to Hail Weston and parts of Skipper Way development will be annexed by Little Paxton.

Currently St Neots has a council tax base of 9178. On current figures Love's Farm will add at least 100 to the council tax base. Eynesbury Hardwicke will add roughly 700. The loss of Skipper Way will lose roughly 100. So when SNTC finally gets to add this to the Council Tax base this could mean a bonanza of at least an extra £61,000 a year to the Town Council coffers. As Love's Farm gets larger this may add another 800 to the council tax base. So a potential £70,000 pa extra. That is without including any housing developments to the south of Cambridge Road.

The question is what should the Town Council do with this annual bonanza? The temptation is to spend all this money on "something". I'm sure there is a list of things the Town Council will want to do with the money. The list will get longer as Town Councillors have more ideas. The Town Council has shown a lack of financial discipline over the ECC and moving Grounds Maintenance in-house.

In the Forward Plan it says:
c. Loves Farm Community Centre
The Council has been approached by the District Council to assume responsibility for the future Loves Farm Community Centre. Land will be made available and some £350,000 will be transferred to provide a suitable building. However, that sum will be insufficient to provide a suitable building.

This means SNTC is already planning to take out another loan to pay for facilities we don't necessarily need. But these residents are paying substantially below what the rest of St Neots are paying.

In St Neots we currently pay band D = £87.55.
In Love's Farm they pay band D = £16.95.
In Eynesbury Hardwicke they don't pay anything towards their Parish Council. So ALL bands = £0
(It will be a shock for these residents when their Council Tax bill will go up to SNTC levels in April 2011.)

I think it is wrong that St Neots residents will potentially have to pay towards new facilities for our new residents. Both Love's Farm and Eynesbury Hardwicke residents pay little or nothing currently to their Parish Councils. If these facilities are needed then a dowry should be paid with the residents. In Love's Farm there is land and £350,000 for a building and that should be it. Build the facility for £350,000 and no more! I feel this bonanza should be used solely for reducing the Council Tax for the whole of the new St Neots.