A TOWN council in South Cumbria has raised the amount of money it gets from council tax by nearly ten per cent.

Kendal Town Council has approved raising the precept the authority gets from council tax by nine per cent but due to the tax base rising the town council will receive 10.5 per cent more in the upcoming financial year.

A Band D council taxpayer will now pay £57.41 to the town council which is an increase in council tax of £4.75 on the previous year. The town council, with the rise in the precept, will receive £627,634 from council tax.

Mayor of Kendal councillor Julia Dunlop said: “This budget reflects the council’s priorities. We want Kendal to be a vibrant place, which residents and visitors find easy to navigate, and a pleasure to linger.

“This budget builds on our campaigning approach to the challenges of climate change and will ensure that the council will continue to deliver projects which improve the lives of all Kendalians.”

The town council say the uplift will help the council to unlock the potential of a further £170,000 in community infrastructure levy, which will include an additional £50,000 on improving footpaths and £50,000 on improving the street scene and signposting from the town’s transport hubs.

The council adds £66,000 will be available for community and festival grants and £30,000 will be available to ensure the town’s popular floral displays are ‘resilient as well as vibrant’.

The town council will also increase its spending on Christmas lights and proposes to spend £30,000 on festive lighting in 2024. In 2023 the town council set a budget of £18,000 for Christmas lights.

The total budget agreed was £867,500, of which £636,157 will be collected from the Council Tax in Kendal from April 1 with remainder from Community infrastructure levy, external grants and rental income.

Councillor Stephen Coleman, who chairs the Council’s Management Committee said: “Everyone recognises that these are challenging times. This is a budget to deliver real changes that our residents will start to notice.”

Kendal Town Council approved the budget for the 2024/25 financial year on Monday February 5.