As some of you may know, I’m a member of the local Parish Council. Last night was a council meeting. It didn’t go well. We normally meet from 7.30 til 9.30. Last night were were still there at 10.30…

The first problem was a recurring issue with dog walkers and our land. The details are long and tedious, but we did have one of the local dog walkers give at 20 minute long speech in which she said “I’m not suggesting you are all corrupt, but…” and then listed things she considered us to be corrupt over.

Later we had to deal with the precept (our chunk of the council tax charge). This year, our precept on a Band-D property is £70.

The problem is that for the last ten years we’ve set the precept too low, so our funds are running much lower than they should do, and we’ve increased our expenses this year. According to our budgetary team, we need a 20% increase in precept to stand still. To build our reserves back up, another councillor proposed (and I seconded) a 25-30% one-off rise in precept for next year. Not one person agreed with us.

The reason seemed to be that the council are worried that people won’t be able to afford it. At the very top end, that would be £1.50 a month extra for a Band-D or 97p for a Band-A. What’s that? A quarter of a packet of smokes? A bottle of knock-off cola?

No, the council instead decided to go for a 15% increase.

I’m sure it’s entirely co-incidental that the entire council is up for election in three months time. I’m sure that no-one would favour a low precept to keep the electorate sweet instead of setting it high enough that we could actually bloody do something…

This is all a matter of the public record, so I’m perfectly fine telling you this. We’ll add the layers of murk to it so that I can stay a hidden little bunny rather than to protect me from revealing supa-sekret council information…

Once upon a time, there was a woman who had a horse. So she bought some land off the council and got planning permission to build some stables on it. The council said ‘yes’ but put a restriction on the application which banned use as a business property. She built her stables and rode her horses. All was fine.

8 years later, a new owner comes along and puts their horses on the land. They realise that the stables don’t match the plans, so they apply to the council for retroactive approval on the grounds it has been up for more than 4 years and no-one has noticed. They get a letter back saying the stables are now fine and the old planning permission is null and void.

4 years further on and a local dispute kicks off about the stables. There is much pushing and shoving. Much of it may be relevant, but little looks provable. One of the things that is brought up is that the new owner is now running a livery stables and riding school from the stables. Which is obviously illegal.

Except, it turns out that it isn’t.

When the council voided the old planning permission, they voided the business restriction at the same time, so there are no restrictions on what can happen there.