Scarborough’s charter trustees have said they support plans for the creation of a new town council but raised concerns about financial transparency.
The charter trustees, who maintained Scarborough’s ceremonial duties following the creation of North Yorkshire Council, have given their support to the creation of Scarborough Town Council with elections to be held on May 1, 2025.
The trustees, who represent Scarborough’s currently unparished areas, approved the plans unanimously at a meeting on Friday.
Despite welcoming the chance for residents in the five wards to elect 15 town councillors in total, concerns were raised about financial decisions made ahead of the authority’s inception.
The introduction of precept charges and how the size of the precept should be decided was highlighted by several members including Couns Liz Colling, John Ritchie, and Rich Maw who called for transparency throughout the process.
Current indicative budgets prepared by North Yorkshire Council anticipate Band D charges for residents of between £25 and £55 a year.
A council officer said that the trustees would act as a shadow council in the interim and provide advice to North Yorkshire Council on the best way to proceed.
Officers also said that a budget briefing would be held after the public part of Friday’s meeting.
However, charter trustees said that in the interests of transparency, an additional charter trustees meeting that is open to the public would be held to discuss the finances in November.
The report presented to the trustees in the non-public finance briefing states:
“The approved precept will result in a council tax charge for the residents of the area covered by the town council.”
“Clearly the new council, once elected, will determine priorities for expenditure but the opening budget needs to reflect the set-up of the new council and an estimate of basic core running costs.”
“A contingency amount can also be included to provide some reasonable headroom for initial service delivery considerations.”
The anticipated costs include an interim parish clerk, civic and organisational costs, set up costs, and a contingency budget.
Papers seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) state that £115,000 has been anticipated for full time clerk and admin support, £58,000 for minimum running costs such as IT and premises, £15,000 for civic duties and £46,000 for set-up costs.
The scale of service contingency funds will be a key factor in determining the scale of precept charges with current proposals ranging from £100,000 to £500,000.
If the annual budget and precept – which will also be discussed at a full meeting of North Yorkshire Council in November, was £734,000 it could result in a Band D charge £55.17.
Selby Town Council has a budget of £610,000 and a Band D charge of £126, according to the report.
The charter trustees’ next meeting on the finances will be held on Monday, November 4.
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