THE PRECEPT in Okehampton will not go up this year after town councillors agreed last week to hold the amount demanded from the town?s ratepayers at last year?s level. Councillors meeting on Tuesday, January 4, agreed to levy a precept for 2005/06 of £160,000. Town clerk Don Bent explained that while the precept remained static, the amount an average homeowner would pay would be reduced because of the increase in the number of houses in the town. A person living in an average band ?D? property, will pay £72.56 as opposed to a charge of £73.76, a saving of £1.20. The precept will leave the town council operating with a projected balance of approximately £59,000. Councillors said the revised budget would provide the properties committee with the necessary funds to tackle some of the most urgently-needed maintenance work on the civic buildings owned by the council. The precept levied by parish councils forms a fragment of the overall council tax demands which incorporates precepts levied by the local borough council, county council and police authority as well.
