The parish precept and council chairmanship

The parish precept is legally and legitimately raised and used in very many ways, but all of them are for the direct benefit of our community. For example, sixty thousand pounds (60k) will be returned to various bodies through grants from our awards & projects committee. 20k will go to supplement the town’s enjoyment of the Tour de France. 13k will go to secure the Manor House for the next year.

Further sums will go on Christmas & town lights, the allotments, Darwin Gardens etc etc. The Council needs funds for you the residents, and the parish, to maintain Ilkley as I suggest to you, we should like to keep it.

Much has been made in recent coverage of the precept increase and the suggested hardship it will cause. Perhaps I could put this in some real perspective.

Yes the increase is around 22% but 22% of what. An average of £25 to £35 per YEAR will be paid by the residents of homes across the Parish, that is 48p to 67p per week. If this is then broken down by the average 3 people per home it relates to 16p to 22p weekly, for each person. And YES children do benefit from the precept.

May I just ask you please to look at the sums in question and ponder what you could otherwise do with your daily 2 to 3 pence if you were not contributing to Ilkley’s welfare?

Parish Council members are not paid of course, but to make your precept work for the community 14 Councillors meet monthly, for general meetings Many of the same members meet within the same month for Planning Meetings, Awards & Projects meetings not to mention meetings of groups like allotments, Darwin Gardens, Christmas & town lights, Car parking, area Parish liaison, Tour de France, Cemeteries & Pathways, Civic events, Management & staffing, I could go on.

Furthermore I should like to assure readers that having studied the effects of our precept on residents, that the worst off in our community DO NOT PAY IT or perhaps only pay 25% of the full charge.

Lastly I turn to Henri Murison’s assertion last week, that I have and do use the Parish council’s money as my own “slush fund” and on “vain initiatives to undermine the Public spiritedness of others”. What utter and thoroughly disingenuous rubbish !

The money you pay to the council is so well regulated that even if members buy from their own pocket, so much as a box of paperclips and claim back that money, it has to go before Full Council, and the claimant has to leave the room before others vote on whether the money should be re-reimbursed or not.

As for larger sums, nothing can be spent by any individual without approval, and almost all spending beyond office petty cash, has to go to a vote at Full Council.

If saving the Manor House, fighting for the Coronation Hospital, running civic events etc is vain, then I shall continue to be so, working for all the people of Ilkley as I have for the last 22 years.

It seems as though silly season is upon us electorally and as ever, some self interested, politically motivated people are seeking to make mischief at the cost of others who are working hard for Ilkley and its residents.

I sincerely thank you for reading my response. I really do appreciate the great goodwill and support that the Parish Council receives for the work it does, from the vast majority of Ilkley’s townsfolk.

Mike Gibbons, Chairman of Ilkley Parish Council

Menwith Hill activities are a growing concern

Kevin Nutter’s Picture of the Week of the American National Security Agency (NSA) base at Menwith Hill prompts me to ask why no recent debate has begun in your pages about its activities.

Following Edward Snowden’s revelations, it daily becomes more obvious how justified have been the thousands of people who have protested, both inside and outside the base, for more than 50 years.

Snowden, a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and former NSA contractor, blew the whistle on the surveillance activities of both the NSA and the British GCHQ. He said: “I don’t want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded.”

If you agree with him, please support the Campaign for Accountability of American Bases (CAAB) which – for the past 13 years – has held weekly peaceful protests every Tuesday evening from 6pm to 8pm at Menwith Hill’s main gate.

CAAB works in many ways including through the Courts and Parliamentary questions. It has published 53 newsletters on its work. The February issue is obtainable from me at 5 Garnett Street, Otley, LS21 1AL, or online at caab.org.uk (the website also has reports on US bases around the world and relevant videos). Please let me know if you would like to go on our mailing list for regular postal or e-mail copies.

Much anger is aroused by applications for windfarms which are reasonable attempts to supply green energy. Little rage seems to be directed at the mushrooming pustules at Menwith Hill which both sneer at the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty by which it gloats and robs us of our individuality and humanity.

Christine Dean, Otley

Well done for refuting ridiculous proposal

Congratulations to MP Kris Hopkins, former Ilkley Parish Councillor Richard Reed and Coun Sandy MacPherson for speaking out against a proposed Parish precept rise of 22 per cent for the coming year.

At a time when all intelligent people recognise the need for tightening of belts, this is a ridiculous proposal.

While there is patently a need for a one-off for the Tour de France, there has been no intervening restraint since a similar rise was made for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Year. Simply percentage has been added on to an increased figure.

While one has sympathy with Coun Ridgway’s survey about the state of Ilkley two things need considering.

Whose responsibility is it? Certainly the maintenance of pavements and potholes is Bradford’s, and the Parish Council’s job is to press for action in that direction. By and large, a reasonable amount of street cleaning does take place and if there is a surfeit of leaves given the weather this winter, that does not merit doubling up the number of cleaning times.

The untidiness of advertising boards could be tackled by the Council itself negotiating with the businesses in the town, and perhaps encouraging them to do more outside their shops as traders used to do. We know retail trade has many pressures from high rates and changes in shopping habits, but surely some youngsters could be encouraged to help – either to give earnings to charities or even to teach them it is never too early to learn to earn money themselves. Of course the health and safety industry will be no help there and exemplifies how Authority money is wasted.

Ilkley pays the second highest rates in the district and is sold as a ‘tourist area’ for the district.

Voluntary labour in the town is tremendous. A fine example is that of the Friends of the King’s Hall when I have just discovered from old papers the huge amount that has been raised in so many improvements by the Friends. Many other societies and clubs in the town are also helped by volunteers. Looking at claims for an endless list of grants for the inner areas we certainly do more than our share.

The Parish Council should be able to motivate people by example and guidance and not simply take money from them. As for ongoing proposals to employ a town centre manager the cost of not only that but the schemes that would need dreaming up to justify the job would be horrendous.

The prime job at the moment is to check the limits on development as the result of that is going to take the town into a much worse state due to lack of space for traffic and services.

B J Cussons, Ilkley

First film festival was an enjoyable event

Having attended four films during last weekend’s Ilkley Film Festival, I would like to congratulate the organisers for staging such a very interesting and enjoyable event.

The range of films shown were diverse in content and culturally informative with the ability to obtain and show the regional premiere of The Book Thief a masterstroke of arranging ability.

As chairman of the Awards and Projects Committee of Ilkley Parish Council, I was delighted that this inaugural festival was a success and demonstrates to both residents and visitors how the Council Tax Precept can be used to the benefit of the town. Ilkley should become more of a festival town in the future and the Parish Council is very willing to support sound based proposals for future events.

Congratulations again to all those involved with the Ilkley Film Festival.

Mike Ridgway, chairman, Awards and Projects Committee, Ilkley Parish Council

Tour should be funded without rise in precept

I find it rather ironic that Ilkley Parish Council agreed a 22 per cent rise in their precept, especially as the main reason appears to be spending on the Grand Depart.

Not just a one-off, but a one-day event. I’ve nothing against the Tour, but I do think it could be funded in other ways. In fact, as a former cyclist myself, I’d like to see people being encouraged to use a bike (or a bus) instead of jumping in the car and so would much prefer to see money being spent positively in this way, rather than at a jamboree. I don’t recall any support from the District Councillors about our campaign to save the buses.

Even better, they could follow the example of Burley Parish Council, who agreed to limit theirs to a 7.5 per cent rise, taking into account pressures on people’s purses. Also, as one councillor commented, to general agreement, if there was any extra money, they would prefer to help save the youth club or children’s centre, both of which are still at risk because of the Government’s austerity measures (though it seems as money’s no problem now, since the flooding, maybe we can hope some of this previously hidden stash will find its way up here!). Pity Ilkley’s councillors don’t display some practical social concern, instead of this gung-ho approach. Maybe because, like the government, they really are out of touch with the lives of ordinary people.

Lynne Faulkes, Burley-in-Wharfedale

Apology

‘In a letter published in last week’s Ilkley Gazette, reader Henri Murison said the Ilkley Parish Council budget “has and is being treated as parish councillor chairman Gibbons’ own slush fund”. We regret the use of this phrase, which slipped through our normal rigorous editing process, and accept it is open to at least misinterpretation, and we wish to apologise to Ilkley Parish Council and particularly its chairman Mike Gibbons for any embarrassment or distress this may have caused him.’