The first Full Council meeting of this year will be on Wednesday 25th January at 7pm in the Blanchard Room at the Village Hall.
This is an important meeting because this is where we review what the village needs and set the precept for the coming year. The precept is the amount that local residents pay as a part of their overall council tax collected by Dorset Council. It is usually shown as ‘Lytchett Matravers’, at the bottom of the list of services provided on your council tax bill.
Part of the review is to plan as much as we can through the prioritisation and budgeting process. We need to identify where to focus our attention and how to allocate the funds that come into the PC to deliver the greatest benefit to the village. Some of the current priorities such as sorting a Wareham Road crossing, High Street Crossing and other traffic solutions, like introducing 20mph zones, have to be done in conjunction with Dorset Council. Similarly, redesigning the Tesco Island needs the input from both Dorset Council and Tesco. Other elements, including setting up areas on the Rec for outdoor Table Tennis and Boules pitches, re-establishing the Eldons Drove Pond, regenerating the Youth Hall and restarting a Youth Club could be funded from the Parish Council reserves and remaining Community Infrastructure Levy funds.
The budget recommendations from the January 11th Finance & General Purposes meeting are scheduled to be discussed and approved. This includes recommendations for a precept for 2023-24 of £108,009. This represents an inflation linked increase of 5.5% year on year on a D Band property, equivalent to an average of around 7.3p per week.
As listed above, we do have lots of projects to deal with, but it is always important to know what your priorities, concerns, and ideas are to ensure that we are making the right decisions. Tell us please, because we really want your input and feedback whilst we are developing plans.
The main agenda will also include reports from various working groups. You can view and download the Full Agenda from here.
All Parish Council meetings are open to the public and always start with Public Participation session where everybody is welcome to attend, consult on and review ideas & plans, discuss agenda items or raise other topics of concern., etc. Your local Dorset Councillors are also invited and may also present reports.