Response to Cllr John Baker’s statements regarding Aspley Guise Parish Council in his latest ‘In Touch…’ newsletter:
John has a long-held negative view of AGPC which is based on historic events.
It is like holding Kier Starmer responsible for something John Major did, or holding John’s current Independent CBC Council responsible for something the Conservative CBC Council did five years ago. It holds no relevance to the past three years where the current team has improved AGPC in every way. We have made some mistakes no doubt, but essentially we volunteer our spare time to look after the village and work openly to everyone’s benefit.
We welcome working with Councillor Baker and thank him for his support when it is available.
This ‘volunteering’ by AGPC Councillors is funded by a precept that is added to everyone’s Council Tax bill (last year this was roughly £105 annually per Band D property in Aspley Guise). We work the same way as every parish council.
John is correct that AGPC accumulated over £210k to spend from April 2025, which is when we needed to have the funds available to cover the next 12 months.
This amount includes money for:
- Running costs like grass cutting, street light electricity etc.
- Grants to local schools and charities like Helping Hands or paying for the flowers in the square
- Project costs such as play equipment in parks, renovating the Square, or buying new benches
- Maintenance costs such as fixing bus shelters, looking after the war memorial, etc.
- A legally mandated reserve fund that we have to hold to cover emergencies
- Reserve funds that are held for longer-term predicted costs, such as renovating the sports pavilion
John is also correct in saying our “current draft budget indicates an even greater bank balance in April 2026.” This is due to inflation, rising costs, and a modest increase of £5k in our reserve.
We have been able to implement large amounts of cost savings over the past few years which has prevented larger increases being necessary.
Our budgets are available on our website and are planned in advertised public meetings – please come to the Link Room at St Botolphs on Monday 5th January at 7.30pm for the last planning session for our 26/27 budget.
John is correct again in his assertion that we cannot fill 12 spaces – please feel free to prove us all wrong by joining us!!! We don’t know why we are set to have 12 spaces to fill, we assume it is a historic number.
A reduction in numbers makes perfect sense to us at AGPC, but we need to explain what we feel works, and why.
Parish Councils were not consulted during this governance review, and most local Parishes are complaining to CBC about this.
AGPC recommends that the number should be reduced to 9 Councillor positions. When AGPC reached this number of Councillors we believed that we had the right amount. It takes a lot of time to cover the work outlined in the budget.
- There is no cost associated with having Councillors
- Larger numbers create more democracy, and gets more done
- With 9 we find we have enough breadth of experience between us to help with the work we do
- 7 is simply too few to cover the work needed, so we will not be able to do as much for the village moving forward
- With 9 we also find we have enough diversity of opinion to make sure we have a balanced debate when decisions are made
One reason put forward for 7 Councillors was so that AGPC matches Woburn who has 7. However, Aspley Guise is over twice as large as Woburn, so the comparison is not as straightforward as it may appear.
John talks of an authoritarian threat. We believe having more voices involved reduces the threat of decisions being forced through. The budget mentioned above needs diverse input from multiple residents to be fair and balanced. Less people means less scrutiny, and a higher threat of cliques making decisions.
You only get one chance in a decade to have input in how many Parish Councillors work for the village.
To support your Parish Council in its recommendation for greater democracy throughout every decision made and not just in elections…
- Please email consultations@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
- Put the subject as “Community Governance Review”
- Recommend the number of Parish Councillors at Aspley Guise Parish Council to be 9.
There is no cost to anyone for this, and we can maintain what we currently achieve for the village.
Thank you, and please feel free to join us full time or part time, and to come to any of our meetings where you can speak on any topic that matters to you.
We are your Parish Council.