A Very Local Tax
Cash cow or concrete cow?
It’s Spring and that means a new tax year has ‘blossomed’! If you haven’t noticed before, your council tax bill includes several taxes in addition to the main tax from Milton Keynes Council. It includes a small ‘precept’ tax, which is money all parishes collect to fund their work. This year, CMK and Campbell Park residents will pay £34 in ‘precept tax’ on average to support our parish. This compares with an average of £1,388 ‘council tax’ to support the work of Milton Keynes Council. As with all parishes, CMK Town Council is completely independent of the main Milton Keynes Council and is not allied with any political party. All CMK Town Councillors are unpaid and do not even claim allowances. Most of us live in the parish or not far from it, so we know the area well, and experience the same problems and take the same pride in it as our neighbours. We try hard to make life better for our whole community. So what do we do? For one thing, we spend a lot of time trying to influence local planning policy and planning applications – this is because many areas in CMK and around Campbell Park are not yet built, and proposed developments can have a big impact on local residents. That’s why we’ve spent so much time on the new Business Neighbourhood Plan, as well as scrutinising planning applications such as Primark and Campbell Square (which we discovered was not providing enough parking spaces!). Speaking of parking, we also try to resolve residential parking issues (as at Adelphi Street) and review any proposed parking changes by Milton Keynes Council, such as getting rid of the scratch card system, which we successfully opposed. Unfortunately we’ve had limited success over parking charges! Looking ahead, we’re planning to solve more landscaping and maintenance problems and help more resident and community groups get involved in local activities. We’re always looking for volunteers, so please get in touch if you have a few hours here or there to help your local community.
