With Falmouth Town Council proposing an almost 30 per cent increase in its precept, these are the services councillors say the cash will fund.

The people of Falmouth are being asked to get behind the town council’s larger than usual hike in precept and in return will benefit from a host of new and improved services.

For three years from 2010, the town council did not impose any increases on its electorate, retaining its precept at around £979,468, but Cornwall Council’s cuts have made that impossible to continue.

Outlining the proposed budget to her fellow members of the town council’s finance and general purposes committee last week, Councillor Candy Atherton highlighted around 20 different services or projects the council intends to introduce, protect or investigate as a result of the increase.

They include:

*The creation of an in-house environmental/town maintenance team who will be responsible for cleaning all the public toilets along with carrying out work such as weeding, weed spraying, repairing street furniture and graffiti removal.

A sum of £200,000 revenue plus £60,000 capital costs has been set aside, which takes into account the loss of a £123,000 grant from Cornwall Council for the cleaning of the toilets.

*The provision of a second shuttle bus to complement the existing service, with the introduction of a new route - £28,000 included in budget.

*Joining forces with seven other towns to provide new, digital CCTV with monitoring and the option to further upgrade the service - £18,000.

*A contribution of £20,000 towards youth services provision, working with Dracaena Centre, after Cornwall Council withdrew its funding which would leave the town without any provision.

*In discussions with Cornwall Council over the possibility of taking over the town’s library service and employing own librarian which would enable library to open six days a week.

*In talks over possibility of expanding its cultural services by creating a history museum, which could link to Falmouth Art Gallery and the library.

*Employing own environmental health officer to work at certain times of the year to respond to issues such as rowdy, late night parties.

*Employing a part-time professional planner to help with the creation of a neighbourhood plan needed to support the council’s application for an Article 4 direction to control the number of HMOs.

*Continued support of the Visitor Information Centre to the tune of £8,000.

*Continuing its contract with Cormac’s parks and gardens team for maintenance of Kimberley Park, the Bowling Green and Trescobeas play area.

*Improvements to the Municipal Buildings and continued investment into other town assets.

*Expansion of a service to clean up after students at the end of the academic year which includes the provision of skips. Council has set aside £4,000 but also secured a £3,000 donation from letting agent Lewis Haughton Wills and hoping to encourage others to do the same.

*A sum of £10,000 set aside to maintain the Dracaena playing fields, which the council hopes to take over the freehold of and has plans to develop the recreation space.

*Money set aside for the BMX track at Trescobeas which needs to be repaired and changes made to it.

In addition, £10,000 has been set aside to be used by the five local Cornwall Council members towards transport schemes. The idea is they liaise and come with issues that need addressing in their divisions and traffic regulation orders are then applied for.

The council also wants to continue its support of community events which “bring so much money to the town and make Falmouth what it is – a vibrant and exciting place.”

Finally, in support of its own staff, the authority aims to become a “living wage council” which would mean no-one employed by the council would be earning less than £7.85 an hour, and also to “do all the right things” regarding staff pensions. “This has a small impact on the budget, but a major impact on setting an example,” said Ms Atherton.