Scarborough and Harrogate’s new town council budgets set to be approved by North Yorkshire Council
The budgets of the new town councils in Scarborough and Harrogate – set to be formed next spring – have been proposed for approval at the next full meeting of North Yorkshire Council (NYC) on Wednesday (November 13).
It follows meetings of charter trustees in Scarborough and Harrogate who were asked to advise on the scale of the precepts.
If approved, Scarborough Town Council would have a precept of £384,000 for its first year, resulting in a Band D charge of £28.88 for 2025/26.
In Harrogate, a precept of £362,000 has been proposed, with a Band D charge of £12.73 for 2025/26.
Ahead of the first elections next May, NYC is required to set their budgets and precepts for the first year of operation.
At a public meeting last week, Scarborough’s charter trustees held further discussions about the extent and scale of the proposed precept.
The budget will include hiring a town clerk and administrative support as well as an interim clerk, equipment and setting up a website, plus funding civic costs, minimum running costs, risk mitigation costs and service development.
After staffing, which has been budgeted at £115,000 for the full-time town clerk and admin support, the second largest expense will be contingency funds at £100,000.
NYC has said that in addition to their own contingency funds, it is willing to provide a £100,000 loan to the new councils to help mitigate financial risk in their first year of operation.
As such, charter trustees including Coun Rich Maw proposed “reducing the precept recommendations by £100,000” to reduce the charges for residents in Scarborough.
However, a majority of the trustees voted in favour of the officers’ recommendations for a £384,000 precept, which highlighted the many “unknown specific costs” that the town council could face and goes towards ensuring that it has “some reasonable headroom” to mitigate those costs.
According to a report, any unspent balance will be carried forward to 2026-27 to “provide funds to mitigate future risk and capacity for service investment”.
Next May, residents in the Castle, Falsgrave and Stepney, Northstead, Weaponness and Ramshill, and Woodlands wards will be asked to elect a total of 15 unpaid town councillors.
Members of the public have been invited to attend the full meeting of North Yorkshire Council in Northallerton on Wednesday, November 13.