Midsomer Norton Town Council has agreed a budget which will see its share of council tax rise by 19.1 per cent.

They have just published their leaflet explaining the maths which states:

"Overall this will see an increase on the Midsomer Norton Town Council portion of your Council tax for a typical Band D property. equating to £27.31 per year which is just 56 pence extra per week."

The list of spending for the coming year is broken down into a pie diagram showing the precept amount the council spends, for the coming year at 558,734, up from a budget of 468,190, in 2023/24, so a greater increase of 19.3 per cent, but they have found savings elsewhere.

Expenditure for 2024-2025, is Staffing £207,252, Training £10,500, Running Costs £81,962, Maintenance £47,370, IT & Support £7,100, Projects £71,000, Grants and Sponsorship £142,900. The whole budget is now on the town council web site HERE

By comparison the increase in neighbouring Radstock for residents, has been worked out to be just nine per cent.

The budget has also shown that there is a substantial spend on the Town Hall, in spite of hopes it would all be paid off by grants and subsidies. And it has yet to re-open in spite of being closed since September 2022.

At previous town meetings there were concerns that the costs of the renovation were ballooning and there was no proper scrutiny of them.

Midsomer Norton Town Council will be meeting on Monday (February 5) at 7pm at The Hollies which is described as being about the budget and precept.