New Milton councillors clash over £170,000 tax hike to fund rugby club revamp
TAXPAYERS will have to foot the bill for a near £170,000 hike in New Milton Town Council’s budget amid an urgent need to refurbish a local rugby club building.
Some councillors objected to the £994,529 figure for 2019/20 – up from the current year’s £825,234 – accusing fellow members of spending residents’ money without any thought of how they may struggle to pay for it.
The amount taxpayers have to contribute towards town council services will subsequently rise from £78.91 to £94.84 at Band D. This equates to £1.82 per week.
Those who were both for and against the increase lamented the fact the council now had to channel £120,000 into upgrading an inefficient ventilation system at New Milton Rugby Club’s changing rooms.
Also, for 2020/21, the council face spending more on replacing a 26-year-old heating and hot water system at New Milton Town Football Club’s Fawcetts Field base.
These expensive blows were attributed to a failure to put smaller sums of money aside each year to go towards maintaining town council-owned buildings.
As reported in the A&T, the rugby club’s Ashley base has been listed as a capital project for the council’s amenities committee due to the need to replace the domestic air extractors in each of its changing rooms.
These were installed when the 1930s building was last upgraded in 2006 but have been deemed inadequate in preventing high levels of condensation that form when the facilities are in use. As a result, there has been a build-up of mould which is said to be affecting the fabric of the structure.
Having objected to the proposed budget increase throughout discussions, Cllr Alan O’Sullivan said it meant the precept would have gone up by 60% in the last three years.
Dissatisfaction with continued budget rises had been behind his decision to resign as chairman of the council’s finance and general purposes committee in 2017, he said.
Cllr O’Sullivan told the full council meeting: “To many residents, including pensioners and young families trying to make ends meet, this increase can be a big difference.
“The one quote seems to be, ‘No need to worry, the residents will pay, and if there’s any left over, we’ll use it elsewhere’. I can only apologise to our residents.”
Branding the proposed increase “horrendous”, Cllr John Ward said: “It’s time this council gets to grips.
“We are spending other people’s money. Many people here don’t understand that because they themselves are wealthy.”
Dismissing the objections, Cllr David Hawkins argued the rugby club project was urgently needed as the changing rooms were now in a dangerous state. Members had previously discussed the risk of Legionnaires’ disease being spread as a result of poor ventilation at the facility.
The fact a revenue expenditure figure of £120,000 had been estimated before being increased to £165,000 caused concern for Cllr Keith Craze.
He also argued the council should have put aside small sums of money year by year towards maintaining its buildings.
“There’s no defined ongoing five-year maintenance plan for town council-owned properties,” he said.
“It seems to be just that we will do the cheaper, short-term jobs first, but the longer-term projects then later become more expensive. We are now in this situation with Ashley rugby club.
“It’s people’s money we’re talking about. Yes, we’re responsible for spending it, but we’re also responsible for spending it wisely.”
Defending the increase, amenities committee chairman Cllr Geoffrey Blunden pointed out the town council had a duty of care to ensure all its buildings were safe and fit for purpose.
“Unfortunately, there are times when major expenditure is needed, and this is that time,” he said.
“Doing nothing is not an option. A short-term cut in the budget will actually cost the ratepayers a lot more in the future.”
Cllr Steve Clarke said: “We’re talking £120,000. Dare we say the worst possible eventuality is someone is seriously injured or even killed – that could cost this council around three quarters of a million pounds to £1m-plus.”
Cllr Steve Short told members he could not support the budget increase, emphasising the financial pressures faced by some residents.
Instead, he suggested looking into other ways of meeting the cost of the work at the rugby club, such as using reserves, trimming from funds for other projects, or seeking funding from sports groups that use the building.
F&GP chairman Cllr Steve Davies said: “Ideally, we would like not to increase the precept ever, but reality bites.
“We’ve got to this stage now, with the football club next year, that we have not been investing in our assets.
“We cannot let our assets decay – we just cannot do that. Hopefully in the future, we’ll ensure all large capital spends have something put aside each year.”
Responding to the points made by some members about maintaining the town council’s buildings, Cllr Ward accused them of ignoring the authority’s record of “spending, spending spending” over the last four or five years.
He expressed his belief that the town would not really have been worse off without certain costly projects carried out in recent years.
“These are just down to the particular foibles of some people on this council who felt they knew what was needed in this town,” he said.
“This talk of assets is getting around the problem, which is that we as a town council keep spending other people’s money.”
In response, Cllr Clarke said: “I would argue that what we’re doing is ‘investing, investing, investing’ in our community. People come up to us and tell us how great our town looks.
“We spend money on appearance in the town throughout the year, particularly in the summer with the flowers and the lights at Christmas. We have become a town to be proud of.”
Acknowledging the budget had increased over the years, Cllr Blunden stressed the extra money had been invested in several worthwhile projects.
These have included employing youth coordinator Silma Ramsaywack and town development manager Suna King who, he said, had both carried out positive work for the town.
Town mayor Cllr David Rice-Mundy said: “Keeping things right for people in the town does cost money,” he said. “We don’t want to have to spend more money, but it’s not such a large amount when put in perspective.”
Cllr O’Sullivan’s proposal, seconded by Cllr Ward, to remove the £120,000 from the 2019/20 budget, leaving just the 6% increase, lost on a vote of five in favour and nine against.
Subsequently, Cllr Clarke’s proposal that the budget be adopted as proposed, was carried.
