Parish Poll to take place on 8th December
The Public Meeting held tonight at the Memorial Hall voted unanimously to stage a Parish Poll on Thursday 8th December, to ask the town's electors whether the Town Council should give grants of:
- £130,000 to the Thomas Gifford Trust, for the Charlbury Community Centre;
- £70,000 to the Charlbury Football & Sports Club, for a new headquarters, changing rooms and social facility on Nine Acres.
The money would be raised by a loan taken out by the Town Council, typically from the Public Works Loan Board, and repaid over 20 years. The effect would be a rise of around £10 in the annual council tax on a Band D property. The rate of interest would be fixed at that in force when the loan was taken out; interest rates are of course at a historically low level at present.
The meeting resolved, following a proposal by Reg James seconded by Phil Morgan, to ask two separate yes/no questions in the poll, one for each proposed grant.
The poll will be held in the Memorial Hall between 4pm and 9pm. Government regulations state that poll cards are not issued, and unfortunately postal votes are not permitted.
The meeting packed out the Memorial Hall, with over 190 people present. Representatives of the Town Council, the Football & Sports Club and the Thomas Gifford Trust were available to answer questions raised from the floor. Notably, representatives of both the Thomas Gifford Trust and the Nine Acres Management Committee spoke strongly in favour of the Football & Sports Club's proposals.
Richard Fairhurst · Wed 16 Nov 2016, 21:43 · Link