In an extraordinary meeting of the Downham Market Town Council on 2nd February, councillors decide to temporarily pause two of their own rules in order to reconsider the previously set annual budget.
Councillors met at the town council offices on Thursday 2nd Feb for a special meeting. The first two items for discussion were to suspend their standing orders, the rules the council agrees to work within, so that they could look again at the budget and precept decided in their last meeting on 17th January. Firstly, the councillors suspended the rule that motions should be provided in writing 7 days before the meeting in favour of 3 days, and then a special motion was put forward to allow them to reverse a previous decision made within the last 6 months.
After these temporary changes to the rules were agreed, the council looked again at the budget and precept for the year 2023/24.
A proposal was brought forward by Councillor Lane and Councillor Jordan to increase the precept, the town council’s share of council tax, by 3% compared to last year. Last month the council decided to keep the precept at the same amount it had been previously, with the cost of living crisis being one reason for not increasing.
The individual council tax bill varies depending on which ‘tax band’ your house fits within based on the property value in 1991 (graded A to H). The council uses a “Band D” property as a ‘typical’ bill and calculates such the annual bill would increase from £141.62 last year to £145.60 this year.
