Update from the Board of Conservators
Charity Commission’s Formal Action Plan
Following receipt by the Board of a Retrospective Valuation Report, the Trustees sought and fully considered independent legal advice on its implications, as required by the Charity Commission’s Formal Action Plan dated 22nd October 2015.
At their scheduled meeting on the 13th February 2017, the Board concluded that, in their view, the Wimbledon and Putney Commons Conservators (WPCC) had now completed the implementation of the Formal Action Plan.
The Board has advised the Charity Commission of this outcome and await a response.
Charity Commission’s Statutory Inquiry
The Board continues to cooperate with the Charity Commission on this matter and has requested guidance from the Commission on the timescale, process and next steps in the Inquiry.
The Board awaits that further guidance but continues to manage all aspects of the Charity in the meantime.
It is therefore inappropriate for WPCC to comment in detail on matters connected with the Statutory Inquiry, including those arising out of the implementation of the Formal Action Plan, at this time. The Board’s view is that a public meeting will be held as soon as it is possible to speak fully about the work that has been undertaken.
Commons Levy 2017/18
Income for the up-keep of the 1,140 acres of the Commons comes principally from a Levy raised on residential properties within ¾ mile of Wimbledon Common or within the old Parish of Putney [“the levying area”]. The Levy is set annually by the Conservators and is then apportioned between the three relevant Councils in which the Commons sit: Wandsworth, Merton and Kingston. The Levy then appears as a separate precept on the annual council tax statements sent to those properties.
Any increase in the Levy is based on a calculation set out in Regulations from 1990, introduced when the responsibility for collecting the Levy was transferred from WPCC to the three relevant Councils. However, any annual Levy increase is subject to a cap principally limited to the increase in RPI in the years preceding the Levy.
Following careful consideration, the Board decided for the first time in five years to set the Levy at its maximum level of £1,135,935 for 2017/18. The average ‘D-band’ Council Tax cost per property is £28.58 per annum, (or 55 pence per week), an average increase of £1.61 compared to the charge in 2016/17.
Further information on the background to the Levy can be found here