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11
Jan 2021
Ripon City Council freezes parish precept
Ripon City Council will not be increasing its parish precept for the 2021-2022 financial year.
In 2020-2021 council taxpayers in the city were charged £71.89, on top of the tax paid to North Yorkshire County Council and Harrogate Borough Council.
The precept in Ripon provided a total fund of £400,000 last year.
A total of £100,000 from next year's budget is being allocated for public events from summer onwards in the hope that coronavirus will be under sufficient control by then to allow them to go ahead.
Money is also being set aside for the renewal of children's play equipment at Quarry Moor Park and external decoration of Hugh Ripley Hall - the building on Skellbank named in honour of the city's first mayor.
City council leader Andrew Williams told the Stray Ferret:
During 2020, the council set aside £65,000 for a number of public and civic events, including the 75th anniversary celebration of VE Day, Saint Wilfrid's Day procession, summer bank holiday entertainment, Remembrance Sunday and Christmas and New Year festivities — all of which had to be cancelled.
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The parish precept money, that would have been spent on these events and others, was subsequently diverted to pay for Ripon's Christmas lights to be extended to help retailers and make city streets more attractive.
That move attracted criticism from some people who thought the money could have been better spent by providing direct financial support for retailers and other businesses affected by the pandemic.
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