West Devon residents face higher bills

Council struggles after funding cuts

Residents in West Devon face increases in council tax and garden waste subscriptions as the council struggles with unprecedented reductions in government funding. 

Members of West Devon Borough Council’s (WDBC) overview and scrutiny committee on Tuesday also discussed using money from the government’s New Homes Bonus, a grant to incentivise housing growth.

The committee heard recommendations for raising its element of council tax for 2023/24 by £7.37; a 2.99 percent increase which would equate to a band D council tax of £254. 

Such an increase is the highest councils can impose before needing a public vote. A one per cent increase in generates £52,000 for West Devon.

The district council is responsible for collecting all council tax, a total of about £46 million in West Devon.  Its share is just 11 per cent which it uses to run the council’s services, the rest is paid to Devon County Council, the police, the fire service and town and parish councils.

Committee members also heard a recommendation to charge more for garden waste collection.  Although it was originally suggested a fee of £49 a year, the independent councillor for Mary Tavy, Terry Pearce, suggested it should be increased further.

“Surely it would be better to go for £52 a year; a pound a week,” said Cllr Pearce. “Then that would cover any people dropping out, who use the service at the moment so that we don’t lose revenue.

“Because at the moment you’ve got the £49, you’re hardly covering the cost of providing the service. And if you get ten or 12 people to fall out of the system and drop out of the system, you going to be losing money.”

Members agreed to the proposal which will now be taken to the council’s hub committee for consideration. 

Councillors were also recommended to agree to use £150,000 of New Homes Bonus (NHB) cash in 2023/24 to fund the council’s base budget.

Some councillors were unhappy about using money put aside for housing.  Independent councillor for Tavistock South West, Mandy Ewings, said: “With having declared a housing crisis, I would be reluctant to give over £150,000. 

“For what we would pay that could be one new home that could be built for us. I just have some hesitancy about taking that much money from that pot.” 

However, it was agreed the proposal would go before the full council next month. 

WDBC says the moves are a result of unprecedented reductions in government funding.  In the 12 years between 2009/10 and 2020/21, the council’s core government funding has been reduced by £3 million. 

The council now receives a minimal revenue support grant of £89,000.

Another suggestion to increase revenue was to impose a 100 per cent premium council tax rate on second homes.  

The council’s share of the council tax for 2023/24, will be set at the council meeting on Tuesday 21 February.