Towcester Town Council requested a precept of £679,753.00 which is the equivalent of a £142.59 per annum (a £24.16 per year increase for the whole year) on a Band D property. This is collected as part of your Council Tax.

The budget was discussed and approved by councillors at a Town Council meeting on 15 January 2024 and was requested from Government through the West Northamptonshire Unitary Council.  Further details can be found on our website here.

If you wish to comment or have any questions, please do not hesitate to email the Town Clerk at towncouncil@towcester-tc.gov.uk 

Transparency

The Local Government Transparency Code 2015 (the code) came into effect on 1 April 2015. The code is issued by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in exercise of powers under section 2 of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980, and replaces any previous codes issued in relation to authorities in England under those powers.

The code does not replace or supersede the existing framework for access to and re-use of public sector information provided by the:

• Freedom of Information Act 2000 (as amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012)
• Environmental Information Regulations 2004
• Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005
• Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community regulations 2009
• Sections 25 and 26 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 which provides rights for persons to inspect a local authority's accounting records and supporting documentation, and to make copies of them.

Towcester Town Council meets the definition of a local authority covered by the requirements of the code, defined as 'a parish council which has gross annual income or expenditure (whichever is higher) exceeding £200,000'. The Code recommends that parish councils which have a gross annual income or expenditure (whichever is the highest) of at least £200,000 to publish 'Public Data'.

The Government has implemented this Code of Practice for local authorities to provide greater transparency of public bodies, which is at the heart of their mandate to enable greater democratic accountability over how council tax and public money is spent. However, Public Data does not include personal information as this would contravene the Data Protection Act 2018.

In accordance with the Code of Recommended Practice and general good practice, Towcester Town Council makes the following information available:

Expenditure exceeding £500

Local authorities must publish details of each individual item of expenditure that exceeds £500. This includes items of expenditure, consistent with Local Government Association guidance. This must be published quarterly.

Our payment documents can be found here. - this information will be available soon

Government Procurement Card Transactions

Local authorities must publish details of every transaction on a Government Procurement Card. This must be published quarterly.

Towcester Town Council does not use a government procurement card as defined by the code.

Procurement Information

Publish details of every invitation to tender for contracts to provide goods and/or services with a value that exceeds £5,000. Publish details of any contract, commissioned activity, purchase order, framework agreement and any other legally enforceable agreement with a value that exceeds £5,000. This must be published quarterly.

Our contracts can be found here. - this information will be available soon

Local Authority Land

Local authorities must publish details of all land and building assets. This must be published annually.

View details of our land and building assets here.

Social Housing Asset Value

Local authorities must publish details on the value of social housing assets within local authorities Housing Revenue Account. This must be published annually.

The Town Council does not hold any Social Housing Assets.

Grants to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Organisations

Publish details of all grants to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.

Towcester Town Council's Community Grant Policy can be downloaded from here.

Grant Award Recipients 2023-2024 - this information will be available soon

Organisation Chart

Publish an organisation chart covering staff in the top three levels of the organisation. This must be published annually.

Towcester Town Council currently employs six members of staff. Our staff can be found here.

Organisation Chart 2024 - this information will be available soon

Trade Union Facility Time

This must be published annually.

The Town Council does not have any Trade Union representatives

Parking Account

Local authorities must publish on their website, or place a link on their website to this data if published elsewhere: a breakdown of income and expenditure on the authority’s parking account, and a breakdown of how the authority has spent a surplus on its parking account. This must be published annually.

Towcester Town Council does not control any parking in Towcester.

Parking Spaces

Local authorities must publish the number of marked out controlled on and off-street parking spaces within their area, or an estimate of the number of spaces where controlled parking space is not marked out in individual parking bays or spaces. This must be published annually.

Towcester Town Council has twelve parking spaces for use by hirers of The Sawpits Centre.

Senior Salaries

Local authorities are already required to publish, under the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 [footnote 41]:

• the number of employees whose remuneration in that year was at least £50,000 in brackets of £5,000
• details of remuneration and job title of certain senior employees whose salary is at least £50,000, and
• employees whose salaries are £150,000 or more must also be identified by name

There is 1 officer employed by Towcester Town Council whose taxable salary is in excess of £50,000.

Pay Multiple

Publish the pay multiple on their website defined as the ratio between the highest taxable earnings for the given year (including base salary, variable pay, bonuses, allowances and the cash value of any benefits-in-kind) and the median earnings figure of the whole of the authority’s workforce. This must be published annually.

Towcester Town Council's pay multiple is 1.5

Constitution

Local authorities must publish their Constitution on their website. This must be published annually.

Our Standing Orders can be downloaded here.

Fraud

The code requires that local authorities must publish the following information about their counter fraud work:

• Number of occasions they use powers under the Prevention of Social Housing Fraud (Power to Require Information) (England) Regulations 2014, or similar powers
• Total number (absolute and full time equivalent) of employees undertaking investigations and prosecutions of fraud
• Total number (absolute and full time equivalent) of professionally accredited counter fraud specialists
• Total amount spent by the authority on the investigation and prosecution of fraud
• Total number of fraud cases investigated

Towcester Town Council has no staff members undertaking fraud investigation work and therefore has no information to publish.

Our Fraud and Corruption Policy can be downloaded here. - - this information will be available soon

Waste Contracts

Local authorities must publish details of their existing waste collection contracts at the point they first publish quarterly contract information. This is a one-off publication.

Our waste contractors are West Northamptonshire Council.

Committee Attendance

The Town Council publishes the attendance records of its Town Councillors.

2022-2023 Committee Attendance - this information will be available soon
2023-2024 Committee Attendance - this information will be available soon