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CLERK’S
FINANCIAL REPORT
for Year ending 31/03/04
2003/4
1. The Council brought forward a balance of £38,423 at
1 April 2003
.
Receipts in the year were £96,287 and payments were £115,431, leaving a
balance in hand of £19,279 at
31 March 2004
.
Our balance therefore halved during the year.
2. Receipts were £40,000 higher than in the previous year. The precept
rose slightly but bank interest was less than half the previous year’s
figure, reflecting the reduction in interest rates and the reduction in
our balance in hand. Rents showed a slight increase, we continued to sell
the Millennium book and mugs, and the largest individual items were the
grants and contributions for refurbishing the pavilion and the Reading
Room. We recovered a higher amount of VAT.
3. Payments rose by £52,000. Routine expenditure on administration and
running expenses showed an increase. Grants to other bodies were higher
because of the one-off grant to Chanctonbury Leisure Centre Committee.
Over half of our expenditure was on the two major projects, refurbishment
of the pavilion and of the Reading Room. We also had to pay the District
Council for last May’s Parish election. As a consequence of the higher
expenditure, the amount we paid in VAT more than doubled.
4. Out of the closing balance of £19,279 various sums are set aside to
meet the cost of work in prospect. This reduces our working balance - our
unallocated reserves - to £13, 479. This is considerably lower than the
working balance we held at the end at last year, and the lowest balance we
have held for several years.
2004/5
5. The Council have provided for cost of living increases in routine
income and expenditure. Funds have also been provided for repairs to the
museum, to improve security and help protect the more sensitive exhibits:
for major repairs to the skate ramps: for new furnishings in the pavilion
and Reading Room: for continuing to develop services for young people,
with financial assistance from Horsham District Council: and to improve
communications with parishioners by extending the material available on
the Parish Council’s website,
6. The precept was increased by a modest 2.7% but for technical reasons
the amount charged to Council taxpayers in the Parish rose by an even more
modest amount - 1.8%, in fact. The annual charge of
£20.14 for the average Council taxpayer in the Parish is one of
the lowest in Horsham District, and lower than any of the neighbouring
parishes.
Peter Evans
Clerk to the Parish Council
April 2004
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