Salisbury City Council call Parish Meeting over council tax plans

A parish meeting is not a meeting of the council, but a meeting of the whole community. 

Any person on the electoral register of Salisbury is entitled to speak at the meeting, and with the exception of the chairman, councillors rank the same as other members of the electorate. 

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 22, at Salisbury Guildhall, at 6pm. 

As revealed on Twitter last night, the meeting is primarly concerning this year's budget. 

NEW: Hearing Salisbury City Council is going to call a Parish Meeting tomorrow, as 6 residents have written to the clerk asking for the meeting to be held. It is mainly to discuss the controversial budget plans.
Anyone on the electoral register is entitled to speak. (cont.)

— Ben Paessler (@benpaessler) February 9, 2023

The motion is:

Do Salisbury residents support: 

a. A limit on any proposed increase to the parish precept by five per cent per year

b. If an administration wants to increase the precept by more than  five per cent  then a parish poll should be required?

Eleanor Wills, the Conservative councillor for Harnham West, was one of the people who called for the meeting.

She told the Journal: "The residents have done the right thing by calling a parish meeting to discuss how Salisbury City Council spends our money. It was wrong for the administration to increase the council tax bill for the City Council by 44 per cent in one year especially while choosing to cut services and remove cultural grant funding.

"I will also be supporting the motion put forward at the meeting to introduce a maximum cap of five per cent on any future council tax bill increases and would urge all residents across the city to attend the meeting and come and listen to the arguments put forward by all sides."

Cllr Wills added: "I don't believe that the amount our bills go up by should be uncapped like this, leading to the historic rise we are facing this year. It's time to hand real democracy back to residents so let's see what happens at the upcoming meeting."

The agenda for the meeting will be published at least three days ahead of the meeting - a skeleton agenda is usually published, but often items are added up to and even during the meeting. 

At the meeting, all issues are decided by a majority of those present and voting. 

A poll may be demanded - in this case on the controversial council tax increase announced by the city council. 

The cost of holding the poll falls on the city council, and therefore on tax payers, and the outcome of the poll is no more a\nd no less than an expression of the views of the electorate who have voted. It is not legally binding. 

For more information on parish meetings, click here. 

Salisbury City Council was contacted for comment.