Prudent spending freezes the precept in Yapton

At their meeting on January 9 parish councillors agreed to set the precept at the unchanged amount of £40,000.

Parish council chairman Stephen Haymes said afterwards: “Everyone is watching their finances during the current economic downturn and Yapton Parish Council is doing its bit by maintaining an unchanged precept for the ninth year in succession.

“Conscious of the difficulties some families may be facing this year, we have carefully reviewed our costs on a line-by-line basis and whilst small increases in certain areas are unavoidable, with prudent management we believe these can be offset by savings elsewhere.

“The unchanged precept means that for the average council taxpayer living in a Band D property in Yapton the cost of providing our services works out at just £29.52 per annum, or just over 8p per day”.

The council also agreed to continue exploring every opportunity to further improve local amenities by seeking grants and applying for funding.

Next year, with the aid of grants, the council is hoping to extend its skate park which has proved hugely successful with young people since it was installed last year.