WELL, now we know the outcome of our council's folly, sorry, foray into litigation. By looking at the figures that the council will let us know about, we can see exactly what the result was.
The very fact that a reduction in the normal operating precept figure has been agreed and, given the attitude of a number of councillors who would not let go of a penny piece — albeit our penny pieces — unless absolutely unavoidable, one guesses that the court action was successful.
However, with the precept being reduced to £70,000 this year as opposed to the 'normal' figure of £160,000, and then rising to this figure over the next few years, it would appear that the Tavistock ratepayer will get back somewhere in the region of £180,000. Whoopee!
But, hang on. Last year it was over £600,000, well over £450,000 more than normal. So what's happened to the other £270,000?
Unless this was the cost of the council's 'victory' — in which case questions need to be asked about the point of the action in the first place — surely ratepayers should get their money back. This could be by a greatly reduced precept for rather longer than the council would like or possibly even a refund.
The people of Tavistock — not to mention those residents outside Tavistock who lost out on funding because of the base precept — paid the enormous bill last year to cover the legal costs of the council's court battles and for nothing else. Certainly not as a 'back door' way of swelling the town hall coffers, or to fund other pet projects.
Those concerns should be in councillors' manifestos when they stand for election, so that the electorate can decide whether they agree.
Of course, my calculations may be incorrect. In which case I'm sure the council will be only too happy to correct me.
Roger Dobson
1 Courtenay Road
Tavistock