How the precept translates to Council Tax
Each year parish councils tell the district council how much income they need to raise from Council Tax. This is called their ‘precept’ and is worked out towards the end of each preceding financial year (usually in December or January), in preparation for the new financial year which begins on 1 April.
The precept is paid out to town and parish councils from Cannock Chase Council’s General Fund and the district council then recover the sum by setting a parish tax, charged to all householders within the boundaries of the particular parish area.
The charge made to each householder is carefully calculated using the formula:
Precept (total annual value requested by the parish council) divided by Tax Base (a figure, which has been carefully calculated by the District Council).
The answer to the calculation provides the annual charge for Band D parish homes. The other Bands are portioned accordingly:
The portion of Band D tax payable to the following Bands is: A 6/9, B 7/9, C 8/9, D 1, E 11/9, F 13/9, G 15/9, H 2 .
Cannock Chase Council is the billing authority and collects Council Tax on behalf of a number of precepting authorities. Each of these public bodies charge Council Tax to support the financing of their particular range of services. The main services each organisation provides (or is responsible for), broadly are:
Cannock Chase Council
Waste collection and recycling
Collection of Council Tax and Business Rates
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction
Support for the Homeless
Parks and open spaces
Planning and building control
Maintains car parks
Environmental health
Leisure services (contracted out)
Election administration
Stoke on Trent & Staffordshire Fire & Rescue Authority
Risk analysis and planning
Engaging with all of the community
Culture, leadership and learning
Prevent, protect, road safety and community well-being
Response and resilience
Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner Staffordshire
Helps make Staffordshire safer
Helps reduce crime
Promotes community safety
Investigates and detects crime
Works to reduce the number of casualties on the roads
Staffordshire County Council
Manages schools, nurseries and children’s centres
Childcare help
Provides adult social care
Trading standards advice
Highway maintenance
Promotes regeneration
Provides a ranges of cultural services
Waste disposal
Public health
Parish Councils
Parish and town councils can provide many services using their legal powers. However, there is no legal duty to provide these facilities (in the way that other tiers of local government have a duty to provide the services they offer). There is however one exception – allotments. There is a legal duty for parish councils to provide allotment gardens if demand is unsatisfied and it is reasonable to do so.
Allotments
Baths and washhouses
Burial grounds, cemeteries and crematoria
Bus shelters
Making byelaws
Act as charity trustees
Clocks
Maintain closed churchyards
Commons and common pastures
Conference facilities
Community centres
Crime prevention
Drainage
Entertainment and the arts
Highways (repair/maintain public footpaths, bridleways, light roads and public places, litter bins, parking places, roadside seats and shelters, traffic signs, planting)
Honorary titles (power to admit to be honorary freemen/freewomen of the councils area, persons of distinction and persons who have made a significant contribution)
Litter
Lotteries
Markets
Mortuaries and post mortem rooms
Newsletters
Nuisances
Acquire land for public recreation and open spaces
Parish property and public buildings (for public meetings and assemblies)
Public conveniences
Recreation
Town and country planning
Tourism
Traffic calming
Community transport schemes
War memorials
Water supply
Well-being (anything likely to achieve the promotion or improvement of the economic and /or social and /or environmental well-being of the area)