The Town Council is required by law to prepare a budget in order to calculate its precept requirement.
The budget must give details of planned expenditure for the financial year ensuring that financial resources are aligned to the priorities of the Council.
The Town Council is keen to provide local services for Alsager residents, as your first tier of Local Government. Its aim is always to provide value for money for the Council Taxpayer in serving the needs of the Communities of Alsager.
The Town Council has thoroughly debated in public its priorities and service requirements for the forthcoming financial year, also considering the uncertainty on the impact of Covid-19 to the Town Council budget and the councils reserves due to loss of service income in 2020-21, continuing into 2021-22.
On the 12 January 2021, the Council determined the full value of its 2021-22 budget that contains net spending plans to a total of £533,939 and additions to reserves of £7,600.
Earmarked reserves, capital reserves and CIL monies are being utilised to finance expenditure and a Precept request of £391,742 has been made to Cheshire East Council, the Collecting Authority in this respect.
Your annual Council Tax charge is built up by the annual charges of Cheshire East Council, Alsager Town Council, Cheshire Fire Authority and the Police and Crime Commissioner. The Council Tax charge relating to Alsager Town Council for 2021-22 will be £79.46 per annum per Band D equivalent household, which represents a decrease of 6.3% from 2020-21. The annual charge equates to £1.53 per week per Band D equivalent household.
The Council received funds via Council Tax from residents in 2020-21 towards a number of activities which did not go ahead as a result of the COVID restrictions that were in place – the carnival, music festival, Remembrance day parade and the Christmas lights switch on. The Council has resolved to reserve the budgets to finance those activities in 2021-22. This principle has contributed towards the Council Tax reduction in 2021-22 and residents are being re-imbursed for their contribution towards those events that were not delivered in 2020-21. It should be noted that the benefit will be in one year only as the funding towards those events will be precepted for via Council Tax again in future years.
The following services are provided by the Town Council and are included within the Town Council’s 2021-22 budget:
Acting as the first tier of Local Government influence on all matters affecting Alsager and its community well being
Alsager Civic
Alsager Institute
Public conveniences on Crewe Road
Wednesday Market
4 allotment sites at Cedar Avenue, Lawton Road, Coronation Avenue and Talke Road
We also contribute to:-
Town centre services – Planters, litter bins and signage
CCTV service funding
Grants to voluntary clubs and organisations
Planning application consultee
Funding activities for young people
In Bloom initiative
Community events – Christmas lights and market amongst others
Community networking – our Councillors are elected to represent the Town Council on many groups and organisations in the Town
The Town-Council-Approved-Budget-2021-22 an be found in Key Documents.