Penrith Town councillors will meet this evening (Monday 14th July) for what is expected to be a short public meeting before moving into a private meeting with the press and public excluded to discuss issues around the new village hall under construction at Carleton that the town council had agreed to take over from the developers and also discuss report and recommendations contained regarding Penrith Town Centre.
These items will be discussed in private by the town councillors as the town council considers the matters are exempt information as they relate to the financial or business affairs of the town council.
In the public section of the meeting town councillors will receive a report on the Penrith Mayday event with confirmation that the town council spent £20,000 more than the agreed budget of £15,000 on the event in May with the final bill coming in at over £35,000.
The town council has said it gives “A special thank you to Penrith Lions who have delivered May Day for over 40 years for helping the Council dress the town in bunting and for providing stewarding to ensure that the event was delivered safely.”
The Council said it “would also like to thank Penrith Rotary for providing stewards and St Andrews Church for allowing the Council to use their land for our village fair part of the event. The Council would like to show its appreciation and voice its thanks for the contribution from Penrith Arts and Culture Group who helped shape this year’s event and actively participated on the day.”
Town councillors will also be asked at tonight’s meeting to ratify a decision made by the council finance committee in another private meeting to create an Events reserve of £80,000 and that funds are approved from the councils reserves to be used for the recruitment, training, professional membership and associated costs of an in house Events Manager and for the delivery of and the strategic management of events in Penrith.
Council officers have also proposed that the town council employ another member of staff for 30 hours a week and for a transfer of funds to be approved rather than a creation of a reserve.
The council currently employs seven office-based members of staff covering a mix of full and part time roles.
Made up of the Town Clerk, Deputy Clerk, Contracts and Services Manager, Solicitor, Responsible Financial Officer, Economic Development Officer and Community Services Officer.
The town council now pays a staffing bill of over £25,000 per month for its seven staff members resulting in around 75% of the council's annual budget and precept covering staff costs annually with £330,985 for staffing costs in the town council's budget for 2025/26
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