Council tax row over Roydon parish boundary change
Diss council tax could fall if Roydon joins the town. Picture by: Sonya Duncan - Credit: Sonya Duncan
Townsfolk could pay less council tax if their boundary is changed to include part of a neighbouring village.
Grahm Minshull, leader of Diss Town Council at the public information event - Credit: Archant
However villagers in Roydon have objected the proposal to become part of neighbouring Diss - saying that while Diss residents would save money, villagers' council tax would go up.
After the idea was discussed at a Diss Town Council meeting on Wednesday, October 25, Roydon Parish Council chairman Paul Curson said: 'The residents that will be directly affected will be paying around four times as much [council tax] as they are paying in Roydon.
'If we lose what is going to be over 40pc of our houses, it's likely that we will have to double our precepts.'
Town council leader Graham Minshull said: 'If you look at the map of Diss, you would say that the built up area is in Diss. The fact that a chunk of it is in Roydon is quite interesting.
More than 50 people gathered outside Roydon village hall to protest against propsed boundary changes with neighbouring Diss. Picture: Charlie Knight - Credit: Charlie Knight
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'We have people down by the train station who may live a mile or more away from the town centre - is it fair that they pay the right amount of council tax, when people across the current boundary pay is virtually nothing?'
The current council tax rate in Diss is around £150 a month, whereas the rate in Roydon is less than £30.
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Mr Minshull added: 'We have a number of people using our facilities. The people of Diss fund these through tax but if we can no longer do that as the funds are not there - we will have to close the facilities and everybody loses them.
'We had residents saying: 'If they come to Diss what do they get?' I said it's not about what you get, you are already getting it.'
Diss Town Council funds a number of facilities including Fair Green Park, Diss Youth Centre, sports ground and the annual carnival.
Mr Curson added: 'Roydon is Roydon, it has been here for centuries and we are proud of our community.
'We have had this argument that they provide facilities, but the things we use in Diss we pay for.
'When we go to the Corn Hall, we pay for the production and the same for their cemetery. If you want to use it, you pay for it.'
South Norfolk Council will decide the outcome on November 29 at its community governance review.
