Dacorum Borough Council plans to cut ‘outdated and unjustified subsidies’ sparks row with parishes
Plans to get rid of “outdated and unjustified subsidies” to town and parish councils in Dacorum will continue despite suggestions that it could set off a “town against country” row in the borough.
Currently, Dacorum Borough Council pays £254,000 each year to town and parish councils in the borough to help cover costs for wardens and other services such as maintaining open spaces and public halls.
But the leader of the council’s minority Liberal Democrat administration, Cllr Sally Symington (Berkhamsted West), said the grants are “outdated and unjustified subsidies” and that the current system is “indefensible”.
The plan is for the warden grants – worth £132,000 a year – to be slashed to nothing over the next two years and for a further £116,000 of yearly funding to be “reviewed”.
That £116,000 currently pays for ‘concurrent services’, which are services that can be provided by either the borough council or the town and parish councils.
To replace the payments, the borough council hopes to create a £200,000 Town and Parish Council Investment Grant from next year to support investment in community assets and high streets.
Some parts of the borough, such as Hemel Hempstead, do not have a parish or town council, and more than half of residents live in areas without a town or parish council.
Cllr Symington said: “Even between the town and parish councils, there’s no sense of equity, let alone between the parished areas and the unparished areas. This is an attempt to have a fair system across the whole of Dacorum. It is clear that the current arrangements are iniquitous, inconsistent and irregular.
“Why does Northchurch receive £16,000 in concurrent services, yet Tring gets less than £500? Why does Flamstead get over £7,000 in warden grants and Great Gaddesden gets nothing?”
Speaking about the plans to cut warden grants to zero, she said: “There are no warden services across Hemel Hempstead. The residents of Hemel do not have that service.
“In the towns and parishes, some of them don’t have a warden, and they’re receiving so-called funds for a warden. Everybody rightly deserves to live in a beautiful and well-kept place, but the towns and parishes are getting funds for something that they’re not spending them on.
“This is an attempt to have a fair system across the whole of Dacorum, this isn’t about just giving … funds to favoured areas.
“We can very clearly see that those funds are not given to the people in Dacorum; they are only given to the towns and parishes. We want the best result for everybody, and everybody includes everybody across Hemel Hempstead as well as across Dacorum.
“It is our priority to direct the council’s precious and scarce resources to improving the lives of the most vulnerable and those most in need in our borough. This requires compassion, consensus building and difficult decisions.”
Borough council officers said they are only aware of two town and parish councils with a full-time warden, who carry out duties such as picking up litter, mowing grass, and keeping notice boards up to date.
A report added that there is “no relationship between the sum paid [to town and parish councils] and any specific outcomes or performance”.
In future, officers suggested work could be contracted out to town and parish councils with performance expectations, rather than money being paid without being tied to a specific outcome.
The proposal to cut the grants led to suggestions from an independent borough councillor, Cllr Lara Pringle (Northchurch), that Cllr Symington was “setting town against country”. At the same time, the Conservative group argued the plans would lead to residents in parished areas facing “double taxation”.
Cllr Terry Douris (Con, Ashridge), who brought a motion to a council meeting on Wednesday, 22 October, in an attempt to stop the cuts, said the grant currently pays for town and parish councils to deliver services that are provided by Dacorum Borough Council in the other areas of the borough.
He said the cuts would be “unfair and unjust” and continued: “If the concurrent services grant is withdrawn, parish councils will be forced to purchase services from their own reserves or by increasing the individual parish precept levied upon residents, for the services which residents in Hemel Hempstead get at no extra charge.
“How can this be fair? Put simply, it is a level of double taxation. Dacorum has a number of beautiful villages which are far from the centre hub depot, and it makes sense for some of those services to be delivered in the most cost-effective way at local level.”
Cllr Douris’s Conservative colleague, Cllr Philip Walker (Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield), warned that the removal of the grant would see parish precepts put up.
Cllr Walker, who is also a Bovingdon parish councillor, said: “Bovingdon spends every penny of that grant on what it should be spent on. If it is removed, then we will raise [the] precept by 15%.
“It’s money that’s needed. It’s not banked. It is more efficient if it is done by the village than being done elsewhere.”
Cllr Douris’s motion was narrowly defeated by 22 votes to 21, with the proposals then being considered at a finance and resources committee meeting on Wednesday, 5 November.
Cllr William Allen (LD, Boxmoor), portfolio holder for corporate and commercial, denied that the plans would represent “double taxation” and continued: “Making cuts is not easy.
“We didn’t come into administration to make cuts, and it brings no pleasure to have to look at this budget line.
“But to have no cuts is unrealistic in the current fiscal climate … where the borough has had to save £11 million since 2016 and still has to make savings of £2 million in the next couple of years.
“In effect, central government is requiring local government to depend on its own resources and its own tax base.
“We are passing that onto parishes. Is there a coincidence here that [town and parish] precepts in Dacorum are nearly half the level of the average precept nationally, which is £92? In Dacorum, it is … about £50.”
Officers said the warden grant, on average, provides around four per cent of the overall funding received by town and parish councils in Dacorum.
Cllr Lin Greenfield, a Labour representative for Bennetts End, hit back against the suggestion that the changes would mean “double taxation” for residents in parished areas.
She said: “My ward is an unparished ward. My residents would say they are currently paying a double tax for residents who live in parishes.
“A percentage of the council tax that my non-parished residents pay goes to fund wardens, potentially, in parished areas. This should be about how we spend public money fairly for our residents.”
The plans will be finalised at a cabinet meeting in December.