A NEW report confirms what many already thought: that rural communities pay higher council tax for fewer services. The report was published on Tuesdayby SPARSE, a coalition of England?s most rural local authorities, of which West Devon Borough Council is one. It concluded that a cross-section of council services cost more to provide in rural areas than in towns and cities. This, plus the fact that countryside councils get less government grant than their urban counterparts, meant the burden of higher council tax bills was compounded by fewer services provided to far-flung villages and rural communities. The Government is publishing a White Paper on local government reform in the autumn and SPARSE is now pressing ministers to change the local government finance system to take account of the extra cost of providing services in rural areas and the needs of countryside communities. David Inman, the West Devon spokesman for SPARSE, said the report was the latest in a chain of reports that aimed to get closer to defining the additional cost of servicing very rural areas. ?This report concentrated on three areas of the country and examined the services in a fair amount of detail. ?It is important in itself, but we are looking to the Government to do a further comprehensive report across England and take forward the work started here?, Mr Inman said. He hoped the work of SPARSE could have influenced the forthcoming White Paper, but said there was an ?ongoing dialogue? with the Government. David Incoll, chief executive of West Devon Borough Council, said the report reinforced what they had found for a very long time. ?Services cost more in a rural area. On Dartmoor one property is more than two miles from the next, so services like refuse collection cost more than a terrace of houses in a town. ?Street cleaning on the A30 is also expensive, and cutting grass involves a lot of dead time travelling between sites,? he said. Mr Incoll also pointed out that there was less interest from private contractors for services such as leisure facilities, as there was not the profit potential. ?The real issue is the Government hasn?t recognised the extra cost of services in sparsely populated areas when it divides the national cake,? he said. In cities like London, he added, there was weighting because the costs, including housing, were higher, but in West Devon they had trouble recruiting people due to the lower wages and higher house prices.
