Funding the Council: It's Your Money

Broadway Parish is funded almost entirely through what is called a Parish Precept. This is a charge that makes up part of the Council Tax for residents of Broadway, alongside the charges levied by Wychavon District Council, Worcestershire County Council, West Mercia Police Authority and Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority. Our portion of your council tax is typically about 3% of your overall bill.

In 2005-06, our total overall budget is £55,000. To put this in context, this is equivalent to about 50p per day for every resident of the village. For that, we have to pay for everything we do: everything from the street lights, benches and bus shelters in the village, to keeping the verges mown and trees tidy, to maintaining Public Rights of Way in the Parish. You can find more information about our responsibilities in the links to the left.

Some headline figures for you, though, from 2004. Did you know that...

• We have to pay for the lights in the village, including their running costs and replacing or repairing them if they're damaged. This came to nearly £5,000 - over £2,000 of which was electricity!

• We pay nearly £4,500 a year to mow all the grass verges.

• We provide financial support to several local charities and worthy causes. Last year we gave nearly £2,000 to such groups as the Citizen's Advice Bureau, the Tourist Information Centre, the British Legion and the Vale of Evesham Volunteers.

• In conjunction with the Broadway Trust, we spent nearly £800 to maintain and replace seats, bus shelters and the village clock and another £1,000 on tree surgery in the village.

This is your money, your council, your village. You fund us for the good of the community: think what things would be like if the grass went uncut, the footpaths became overgrown, the streetlights went out and weren't relit.