A TOWN council has threatened to report a district authority to the Local Government Ombudsman over changes to its council tax precept.

Cllr Tammi Tolhurst, chairman of Middleham Town Council, has said that, along with Richmond Town Council, her parish council was left in the dark over proposed changes to the tax base.

Richmond Town Councillors voted in March to write to Richmondshire District Council to ask why, despite the town council opting not to raise its proportion of council tax, it appeared to have increased it by 3.1 per cent in the most recent bill.

Now a similar situation has arisen in Middleham.

Cllr Tolhurst said if she and her fellow councillors did not receive a satisfactory response from the district council she would take the matter to the Ombudsman.

“Richmond Town Council was informed that its clerk had been “inadvertently” missed off the circulation list for the meeting held on October 2015 to explain to town and parish clerks the changes RDC proposed to make to the tax base," said Cllr Tolhurst.

“An identical “administrative error”, as it was described to us at Middleham Town Council, also resulted in our clerk being omitted from the list, so like Richmond Town Council we set our precept at zero increase and were only made aware of the increase imposed upon us when residents complained once their council tax bills arrived.”

She added: “When we queried the increase we were given the same tale of “administrative errors” and “omissions”.”

“It is not lost on us all that Richmond district council tax bills now appear to show that RDC has kept its council tax at the same level as last year, but this omits the fact that it has only done so by unilaterally imposing a three per cent increase onto parishes. And all for what – to save £15,000?

“If we are not satisfied with the response from RDC we will take the whole issue to the Ombudsman.”

Of the 54 parish and town councils in the district, Middleham and Richmond appear to be a minority.

Others, including Catterick Parish Council, Brompton-on-Swale Parish Council, Aysgarth Parish Council and Bainbridge Parish Council, were all present at the meeting held by the district council and raised their precepts accordingly.

Richmondshire District Council corporate director, Sian Moore, said: “The rise in percentage council tax for Richmond and Middleham consist of two main elements.

“Council tax base has increased, partly due to changes to council tax reduction and assumed development, and also because of the reduction in grant from the district council – a grant that was costing the district council.

“However the important issue is that Richmond and Middleham Town Councils will still receive the same amount of cash as in 2015 to 2016 to spend on its services.

“We are happy to clarify the calculation again to the town clerks.”