Shock over 83.6% Carnforth council tax hike

The resident also said: “How can Carnforth Town Council increase the council tax contribution by 83.6%? Over Kellet has an increase of 1.9%, Warton has increased by 3%. I am baffled at the huge increase! I just got my bill and was shocked at the increase. There is a cost of living crisis at the moment.”

A spokesperson from Carnforth Town Council said: “Last October Carnforth Town Council started the process to determine its budget and council tax requirements (precept) for the financial year April 2024 - March 2025. This culminated in a final decision being made at a special budget meeting, that was open to the public, in January of this year.

“The process has been a robust, open and transparent, involving consultation with residents and information sharing throughout.

“The reasons for what the Town Council acknowledges is a significant rise in this year's precept were set out on the January/February edition of its newsletter, the Carnforth Express, and on its website at https://carnforthtowncouncil.gov.uk/tax-ing-matters/

"The proportion of their annual Council Tax bill that Carnforth residents living in property Bands A to D will be paying to the Town Council will be between £1.34 and £2.00 a week.”

On the website at https://carnforthtowncouncil.gov.uk/tax-ing-matters/ the town council said that during budget deliberations, they had to consider the future refurbishment

and maintenance of two public halls – Carnforth Civic Hall and Crag Bank Village Hall both of which need their old and inefficient heating systems replaced to reduce costs and carbon

footprint, as well as other improvements to safeguard these buildings for generations to come.

A spokesman for Carnforth Town Council said on the website: “The Town Council’s budget provides enough to maintain day-to-day operations but is woefully insufficient to meet any major contingency that might arise such as the total failure of one or both of the heating systems in the two public halls.

"For that reason, we have taken the difficult decision to increase our proportion of your Council Tax payment for 2024-2025 to provide the resources to enable us to replace at least one of the heating systems while maintaining most of our other services.”