On Monday 18th September at its Full Council meeting, Councillors welcomed new Town Clerk Kate Elliott-Turner to the team.

Kate is an experienced Clerk and is looking forward to working in the Town. She says “I am looking forward to getting involved with the vibrant Ivybridge community and supporting the Town Councillors to deliver projects and improvements for the benefit of the entire town.”

Our outgoing Clerk of 3 years, Jonathan Parsons will be leaving the Clerking world for ventures new. Prior to taking the role of Town Clerk for Ivybridge, he worked for 8 years as Business Manager for the Council’s Watermark building, helping to make it the fantastic community asset it is today.

Mayor, Councillor Alan Spencer said “Jonathan has been so instrumental these past 11 years in shaping the Watermark, and providing positive constructive input into the town council, it will be very sad to see him leave, but I am ever so excited to welcome Kate as our new Town Clerk, with a fresh set of eyes and extensive clerking experience, the future is bright for Ivybridge”.

The household increase in council tax for the Town Council will be 4.8%, an increase of £6.66 per year, or 13p per week (Band D equivalent will now be £141.57 per year, lower bands pay less, higher bands pay more).In general, you can see what each council does for its proportion of the Council Tax here: https://www.ivybridge.gov.uk/councils

The Town Council has used its reserves where possible to minimise any increase, but some areas of Council expenditure have seen double digit inflation in areas which are unavoidable such as energy, but the Council worked hard to budget for an increase at around half the rate of inflation.

Other Councils, such as SHDC have many other sources of income including central government and other grants such as the New Homes Bonus and Rural Services Delivery Grant. They are also limited to a 2.9% or £5 increase else they have to go to a referendum, and so they have proposed to raise their element by the maximum level possible - £5 per year (Band D equivalent). They require more Council Tax per household than the Town Council at £185.42 per household (Band D equivalent).

The Town Council only has one source of income – the precept which is its share of the Council Tax. And so it must earn the rest of the money required to run the rest of its services through charges for those services and partnerships.

This coming year the residents should see:

- the results of investment in The Watermark to significantly reduce energy costs for lighting

- investment of up to £100,000 in Play Areas and more for upkeep

- funding of a new job to help groups and organisations to gain external funding (in partnership with Totnes Town Council who have successfully done this before)

- management and investment in around 100 acres of public parks and woodland for the benefit of all residents

- continued provision of access to arts, cinema and entertainment at The Watermark for residents, schools and other groups

- quality jobs for local people who put money back in to the local economy, the lowest paid of which are paid a living wage

- increase in the general community grants budget to help groups in the town deliver support to the community

- engagement and support of young people including through supporting new facilities with partners such as Skate South Devon

- support of Citizens Advice service to run a weekly session in the town

- provision free rooms to be used for community use such as English lessons for Ukrainian guests, group AGMs etc

- support of the creation of a community fridge

- on going work with the District and County Council to help them understand Ivybridge needs in the areas they are responsible for such as active travel, wellbeing, youth, economic development etc

- work with agencies with the power to reduce anti social behaviour

- increase the towns resilience to climate change and other emergencies

- protect and campaign for better care and improvement of our river and built environment- and much more.

Full details of the Council Budget can be found on the website here: https://www.ivybridge.gov.uk/reports-and-audits