Liberal Democrat councillor Christian Martin has questioned whether taxpayers are getting value for money as he encourages the council to cut costs.

At a North Tawton Town Council meeting in the February 2023 Cllr Martin identified savings which included reducing or freezing the precept, but his ideas were dismissed with only one other councillor voting against raising the tax alongside Cllr Martin.

Cllr Martin said: ‘At the time of a cost-of-living crisis I was surprised to read in the minutes of the finance committee for North Tawton that no real discussions or proposals on saving money in the budget were had. There was a record of decisions taken to increase reserves and the precept.’

Cllr Martin subsequently investigated the possibility of moving the council’s reserve money into accounts with better interest rates so that taxpayers’ money would earn a better return to mitigate the high rate of inflation.

The council ‘resolved that the clerk, as a low priority, investigate best ethical interest rates available and to move any accounts to higher rate offering accounts to ensure maximum return for the people of North Tawton and report back to the council’.

Cllr Martin added: ‘To make earning money for the taxpayer a low priority beggars belief and I am sure will irritate taxpayers who expect as custodians of their money for the council to act on their behalf with alacrity.

‘I suspect many of us have grandmothers who advised us to look after the pennies and the pounds would look after themselves but such prudence does not seem to be evident in North Tawton in a time when everyone is struggling and councillors need to lead the way and cut our cloth accordingly.’

However, in the council’s budget and precept recommendation document, discussed in a meeting earlier this year, it was reported that the council had liaised with its contractors to make savings where possible and had identified savings.

Earlier this year, North Tawton Town Council’s finance committee ‘resolved to recommend a total budget requirement for North Tawton Town Council in 2023/24 of £174,277. This represents a decrease of £44,638 on 2022/23 which is a reduction of 20.4% over 2022/23.

‘Based on the proposed budget of £174,277, the finance committee resolved to recommend a precept of £144,971 for 2023/24. The band D parish rate will be £203.24, which is a 5.9% increase on 2022/23 (below inflation), amounting to £11.32 per year, (94p per month/22p per week).’

Despite this increase, North Tawton’s finance committee has calculated that even with a precept increase, the total budget required for this financial year, which started in April, has actually fallen by £44,638.

The budget includes £1,000 to cover the cost of purchasing new planters and troughs for the Square and over £3,000 to fill them twice a year and pay for the Christmas tree.

The 2023/24 budget also includes £3,500 from earmarked reserves to pay for a feasibility study into the possibility of redesigning the Square though this has not been labelled as a priority.