Parish council defends cuts
A PARISH council has spoken out to allay villagers’ concerns about a decision to make its two caretakers redundant.
Residents accused the parish council at its latest meeting of being forced to cut costs after spending £98,235 on buying and refurbishing the Church House in St Andrew’s Street as a community centre for meetings and a clerk’s office, replacing the council chambers on Eastgate.
Vice-chairman Jan Palmer explained they had been warned some years ago they would be forced by law to provide office staff with toilets from January 2012. Converting their existing chambers would have taken up too much room and so money was put aside until they got the chance to buy Church House last year which has just been completely refurbished.
She said the parish had tried to absorb funding cuts for several years and by taking on grasscutting, litter picking, street sweeping and toilet cleaning roles, preserving the jobs of their two full time caretakers. But they were now faced with such drastic cuts to funding from district and county councils they could no longer afford to keep them on beyond March without falling foul of auditors.
Residents were assured service standards would not slip and a part time caretaking role would continue.
Heckington resident Bill Martindale called for greater transparency saying councillors should have seen the cuts coming.
Chairman Richard Higgs explained to keep the men on would have meant an increase of £45 to each householder’s council tax and the sale of the old chambers would cover the short term loan needed.
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Weather for Sleaford
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 10 C to 22 C
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