Parish councils are essentially self-financing bodies. They do not receive general grant direct from Government, but receive financial support from county or district councils (which are supported by Government grant). Their main source of revenue funding is the parish precept. This is a local tax levied by the Parish Council which is collected on their behalf by the Rating Authority (SODC).
Ewelme Parish’s precept consists of the annual sum needed by the Parish Council to deliver services and carry out tasks as requested by Government. The precept is a small proportion (4.4%) of the total council tax collected by South Oxfordshire District Council. The rest of the council tax is used for the police (10.2%), District Council (8.51%) and County Council (76.89%).
In 2006-07 our precept was £11,500. To put this in context, this is equivalent to about 50p per week for every resident of the village. We use this, for example, to:
This is your money, your council, your village and we work on your behalf for the good of the community. Ewelme Parish Council has traditionally prided itself on keeping the precept low and, despite increasing costs and large expenses (re-thatching the Reading Room) next year, we hope to continue this.
Sue Hill, Ewelme Parish Clerk