EXPANDING West Devon's garden waste and card recycling service to more residents, delivering 66 new affordable homes and taking a lead role in a pioneering 'green energy' business park are amongst a raft of initiatives for West Devon Borough Council over the next 12 months. Councillors last week agreed to a budget of £7.7 million towards helping fund these latest projects and providing its services to almost 23,000 households in the borough for the next year. It means an increase for residents of an average Band D property of £8.12 per year or 16 pence extra per week. West Devon's portion of the council tax will be an average £174.01. The rest of the council tax bill is made up of charges from the county council, parish or town councils and fire and police authorities. Cllr Dick Eberlie, chairman of the borough's strategies and resources committee, said: 'In the last government assessment, West Devon received the highest score of any Council in the South West of how it manages its finances and delivers value for money. 'With the Retail Price Index currently reporting an inflation rate of 4.4%, our increase of 4.9% is only 0.5% higher, which only gives us £16,000 towards meeting Government demands. 'We are proud of our record of strong financial management and we have minimised the impact on residents by ensuring we maintain our strong performance on value for money. 'However, there are challenging times ahead and we fear that next year the Government may provide less financial support. Long term financial planning for the future will be key and is something the Council is very good at.' West Devon councillors were told despite budget pressures of £840,000, the borough had still managed to reduce overheads and find savings of more than £200,000 with no frontline services being affected. In addition, car parking charges have been held at current rates with no increases. Services provided by the borough include local planning, housing, environmental health, refuse collection and recycling, providing recreational facilities and promoting tourism and economic development. The borough is also responsible for collecting council tax, business rates and administering housing benefits. West Devon is already one of the smallest staffed district authorities in England with 134 full time employees. The amount of grant funding the council received for 2007/08 was also £109,000 below the average grant increase for a district council. The borough will continue to charge owners of second homes council tax of 90% — the maximum allowed by the Government. Plans for the coming year include: l Delivering 66 affordable homes to drive forward the Council's target to deliver 673 affordable homes by March 2010. l Expanding the garden waste and card recycling scheme to a further 2,500 households in the Spring. l Improving residents' access to services with 'outreach surgeries' being extended to include further surgeries at Chagford, Lifton, Princetown, Horrabridge, Yelverton and Bere Alston. Information will also be brought to the door with a new mobile education vehicle.
