Finance
The Parish Council's main income is from the Parish Precept. If you are a householder in the West Swindon Parish, this is collected through your Council Tax bill.
Over the last two years, similar to all small businesses, the Parish Council has experienced significant increases in day to day running costs across the business particularly fuel (doubly impacted by Government changes to red diesel subsidy), machinery, consumables and play parts. The budget planning for running costs needs to increase in line with national picture.
Looking ahead the Parish Council has a number of financial issues including planning for an extension to its leased premises, new vehicle lease agreements and/or purchase of vehicles and ongoing replacement of mowing machinery. The combined costings alongside overall increases to wider running costs amount to a budget increase of 20%
For 2024- 2025, the Parish Council increased the income from the Parish Precept by 20% from last year. For individual households, the precept increase will vary. For a Band D property a 20% increase is around c.£22.14 compared to what you paid last year, and is the equivalent of £1.84 extra per month. Swindon Borough Council publish the Parish precepts set across Swindon which can be found here
Transparency
It is important to the Councillors in the West Swindon Parish that there is transparency and accountability for its financial decisions and practices. To support this, in line with the Transparency Statutory Code requirements, we publish expenditure information over £500 and information about salaries.
West Swindon Parish Council Staff Structure 2024
There are a number of exemptions and redactions from the data in line with the Transparency Code requirements, including the exemption of non-commercial payments to specific individuals which cannot be disclosed as they are covered by Data Protection Act requirements. Individual employee payments information are also not included.
Details of payments for last year are as follows: WSPC Payments Over £500 2023-24
Historic payments over £500 can be viewed here