I know many of us think council taxes are too high. I have a mixed view.

I pay £178 each month for ten months of the year. That is a lot.

£142.00 goes to Oxfordshire County Council.

£18 goes to Thames Valley Police.

£12 goes to Vale of White Horse District Council.

£4 goes to North Hinksey Parish Council.

(Doesn’t exactly add up as I’ve rounded the monthly numbers.)

So the £12 I send to Vale each month contributes to our waste and recycling collections, leisure centres, parks maintenance, housing and homelessness services, planning policy and development services. And more.

District councils are allowed to raise council tax by the greater of 3% or £5 per year. If they want to raise it more than that, a referendum must be held (and those are expensive).

A council tax rise of £5 per year would be 50 pence per monthly payment. Most of us wouldn’t notice that amount, even if it happened every year. Plus, people who would find this a hardship can take advantage of a fund kept on hand to help people who can’t afford to pay their council tax. That pot has never been depleted, so everyone is clearly coping.

As far as I know, there is no legal limit to the amount a parish precept may rise each year. Mostly parishes assess what’s really needed and set the precept to cover it.

I personally would like both the district council and the parish council to charge me enough council tax to fund the local services we need. I think I could squeeze out a bit more in tax and precept to bring safer pedestrian crossings for our children as they walk to school, some parking enforcement to make cycling, driving, and walking safer and more hassle-free, our children’s centre to be able to serve local families, funding help for local leisure facilities, covered bus stops with a place to sit, maintained grass verges. Et cetera.

Those are the things we need, and I would be content to pay a little bit more to have them.