From: Dist Coun Keith Rothwell, Knaresborough East Ward.
NEXT year’s financial requirements (council taxes) are being assessed.
Residents of the District’s towns and villages (parishes) will know that their tax pays contributions to the county council; fire & rescue; police; Harrogate Borough Council; a
nd an additional item for the administration of their parish.
Residents of Knaresborough, like those of every town and almost every village, pay this “parish precept.”
Harrogate residents do not pay this added item, yet enjoy the use of all the free amenities that have been developed and are maintained by taxes from the whole district.
Although amenities in the rest of the district may also be free to use, the cost of development/maintenance and of all the administration entailed have to be paid for by the local residents.
In some cases, a parish even has to pay Harrogate Borough Council a further sum in rent for the land on which it is striving to develop the amenities or for property that it uses.
Furthermore, when parishes need assistance from council officers, whom they employ through the council tax, they are made to seek help elsewhere and must pay still more in subscriptions to the Local Councils Association for advice, or even to employ solicitors.
Is it unreasonable to demand that everyone throughout the Harrogate District should contribute equally to the council tax?
Just as the tax pays for the administration for the Borough, it should also pay for the administration of the Parishes. None should have an additional tax burden; none should be denied full cooperation from the council staff to whose jobs they contribute.
If council tax were applied equally to all residents, it would be reduced; the time has come to remove a social injustice.
