Manchester PC records revenue increase

MANDEVILLE:

THE REVENUE intake of the Manchester Parish Council has recorded a slight but steady increase since 1999 moving from $12.5 million to $12.7 million as of April this year.

The Council's director of finance, Winston Palmer, said he hoped that this performance represented only the tip of the iceberg and that much more revenue will be realised over the next year.

Mr. Palmer who recently replaced Ian Reid as the Council's secretary/manager also said there are several areas which will be focused on to improve the Council's level of financial autonomy.

The Council's revenue increase comes while other Councils are lagging behind on generating their own income in the face of massive cuts in allocations from Central Government amounting to more than 50 per cent of its projected yearly budget.

As a result of these cuts which started in 1998 greater emphasis was placed on generating more revenue locally to finance the operations of the Council and carry out its responsibility to the residents needs such as road repair, trucking of water, poor relief and street lighting.

The Council will be stepping up its efforts to increase its property taxes and user fees collection during the next fiscal year. The floating of a bond to generate funds to carry out road repairs is also being discussed by the Council's finance department.

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