THERE is good news for the ratepayers of Tavistock — the town council looks set to reduce its precept by hundreds of thousands of pounds, writes Jane Honey.

The reduction should see next year's town council proportion of the council tax demand drop by about 84 per cent.

The town council was heavily criticised for a massive rise in its precept last year of almost 400 percent while it was involved in a lengthy and expensive legal battle over repairs to its properties.

Now the arbitration case is over

although the result is not known — councillors say they are legally bound to stay tight-lipped about all the details.

Members at last week's meeting were asked to decide what level of precept they felt should be charged this year.

Mayor Judith Williams said it was 'unusual' to look at budgetary processes in an 'upside-down' way, but she said it was important to give the clerk an indication of councillors' views on next year's precept.

Cllr Ted Sherrell said the last 12 months had been a most 'difficult and uneasy' period.

'The people of Tavistock have been very unhappy and understandably so.

'We are in a position where we have to balance things — we have commitments but we have great obligations to the ratepayers of the town to keep our precept to its minimum, far less than we would usually set,' he said.

Cllr John Wright, chairman of the finance committee, said the principle was 'very clear'.

'Council tax payers made us a loan and we asked for that on the basis that certain nasty things might happen. In order to deal with these things we needed some degree of financial security.

'As we know, those nasty things did not happen,' said Cllr Wright.

He said it might not be possible to levy no precept at all but a reduced figure over a period of years would 'repay the loan'.

Cllr Caroline Keane said: 'It was in my opinion a loan. I would be looking at a very different scenario from last year to remedy the situation if at all possible to the rate payers.'

Cllr Marjorie Corner said she would like the council to set a lower precept than usual. 'Slightly lower might be an aim for this year and then gradually bring it up to what was the normal precept over the next two or three years,' she said.

Cllr Betty Batchelor said the council had been 'rather mean' over the years and could not keep 'putting off' things it had been promising the people of Tavistock. She said the precept should be 'sensible' in order to accomplish the council's aims and reduce the 'neglect of many years'.

Town clerk Roger Howard said he would now start to prepare the budgets for next year and would be looking to set a precept of around £99,000 — about £60,000 less than the council would levy in a normal year.

'We have got the reserves now but there are so many things we must spend money on.

'There is still maintenance work to do — the fact there is money in the bank doesn't mean it's spare, it's earmarked,' he said.

Last year the town council asked for £622,375 in their precept. Not only did this affect Tavistock's ratepayers, it also nudged West Devon's rate demand up so far the borough lost thousands of pounds in subsidies from central government.