The Council met on Monday night to discuss a number of issues raised regarding Midsomer Norton.

One of the longest discussions during the full Council meeting was regarding the 2023/2024 budget and Council tax precept.

Councillor Gordon Mackay started things off by saying, "I have received a lot of feedback from the public, they, like me, have found it almost impossible to follow the current format of the budget."

Gordon explained prior conversations regarding finances.

"We started off with what seemed like a huge increase in the precept. Then we tried to cut everything to get it back down. The feedback was ‘don't cut everything’, so we went back to it again."

He added, "I still think the budget is too large, and sixteen per cent is unpalatable."

"I think we should stick to our own guidelines, which state that the precept should be no higher than the rate of inflation, which should be around eight per cent or so. It's still relatively high and still breaking all our pre-budget forecasts, which we will now have to redo as they’ve now exceeded the next four years."

"We probably should’ve updated those before we started discussing the budget."

"As it is, I think we can work within the eight or nine per cent, whilst keeping the budget for things that we want - central services…youth services…"

"That would make the increase 16 pence a week for a band D property - certainly not as much as 33p."

Councillor Mackay proposed that the precept should be kept within the Council's own guidelines, which would be "eight point five percent or so".

Councillor Brian Lawrence stated, "I agree with Gordon, over the years we have always tried to keep our increase under the rate of inflation. This year we have got greater costs, but so has everybody."

"I think there are some adjustments we could make to the budget that would bring the increase to the 8 percent mark, there are some specific items we could put forward to do that."

Cllr Richard Robertson opposed the pair, saying “We have no time left, we can’t have another budget meeting to discuss how the budget is going to be set up. We have wasted three meetings bickering over this.”

“We’ve discussed it, we agreed, and there was a majority decision to accept these figures and put them before the meeting.”

“32 pence [sic] additional on the band d homes will get us this budget. this budget means we can do everything we have on our books to do.”

Councillor Michael Evans chimed in, “putting the 33p into perspective, the three percent BANES Council tax increase puts 90 pence a week on a band D property."

"Little Midsomer Norton, with no statutory responsibilities, reckons to put more than a third of what BANES is putting on the council tax puts a perspective on how unacceptable this increase is.”

Councillor Mackay said: “We need to stop saying 'this is how much it costs and the taxpayer will foot the bill', set a budget and work within it. We can't keep making people pay more tax like they are our personal piggy bank".

As a final comment, Councillor Gordon said, “A big part of our budget is obviously the Town Hall, so we can’t say we are not being forward thinking - it’s a capital project with its own economic underpinning, unlike many of the projects which are for aesthetics”.

“The town hall, which seems to be crumbling and in more need of restoration than ever before every time Nicola [the project manager] comes in to visit, will be a money-making asset for the community in a few years' time. So we are investing in something as well, that is a big part of our budget, and it will increase the footfall in Midsomer Norton.”

Councillor Lawrence closed the discussion by proposing a precept increase of eight percent, which would make the income from Council tax "just over £469,000", which is £30,000 short of the Council's proposed budget.

This would mean an increase of £8.52 per year, making Council tax £115.03 per annum for a household in the band D tax threshold.

All councillors voted in favour of this move, bar Richard Robertson.

After the meeting, independent Councillor for Midsomer Norton North, Shaun Hughes, gave the following statement: