Option 1 is to redraw the boundary so that all properties in the Lido Village are within Silloth Town Council area.
At the moment, properties on the Lido Village are paying Council tax for Silloth and yet some are unable to vote when there is an election for Silloth Town Council, as they are actually within Holme Low Parish. Option 1 would correct this anomaly and enable all Lido Village residents to vote in a Silloth Town Council election.
Option 2 would take all of the Lido Village plus the properties on Barracks Bridge into the Silloth Town Council area.
With Option 2, the 15 properties on Barracks Bridge would be taken out of Holme Low and those properties would then in all probability, have to pay increased council tax bills, as they would then have to contribute towards the Precept of Silloth Town Council. The only benefit from moving the boundary would be that residents of Barracks Bridge would then be allowed to vote in a Silloth Town Council election
For example, on a Band D property, the Silloth portion of the Council tax bill will be in the region of £196.15 per year for 2020/21, whereas for Holme Low, on a Band D property the Holme Low portion of the council tax bill will be in the region of £56 per year.
Holme Low is made up of a number of small hamlets; Barracks Bridge, Blackdyke, Blitterlees, Calvo, Causewayhead, Greenrow, Seaville and Wolsty with a much smaller number of households compared to Silloth. To remove 15 houses at Barracks Bridge from Holme Low would have a detrimental effect in that there would be fewer houses to cover the Holme Low precept, resulting in the council tax bill for the remaining properties increasing as they would have to contribute a larger proportion.
What is a precept? The precept is the parish or town council’s share of the council tax. The precept demand goes to the billing authority, the Borough Council, which collects the tax for the Parish/Town Council. The ‘Precept’ is converted into an amount per Council Tax Band that is added onto the Council Tax bill.
Why is there no Option 3?
Another suggestion would be to redraw the boundary so that all the properties in the Lido Village are within the Parish of Holme Low.
Council tax bills for the residents of the Lido Village would be reduced, as they would be paying council tax to Holme Low rather than Silloth. However, none of the residents of the Lido Village would be able to vote in a Silloth Town Council election. This would benefit Holme Low in that there would be more households to contribute to the Precept of Holme Low which would reduce the cost of the Council tax bill per household. It would have the opposite effect on the Silloth council tax bills but less noticeably as there are a lot more households in Silloth.
Responses to the consultation can be submitted online on the Allerdale Borough Council website https://www.allerdale.gov.uk/en/consultation/silloth-community-governance-review/
If you have already responded to the consultation but after having considered the above, now have a different opinion, contact the Electoral Services Department at Allerdale Borough Council, Allerdale House, Workington, CA14 3YJ. Email: electoralservices@allerdale.gov.uk Tel: 0303 123 1731. The consultation ends on 10 February 2020.
