Marown Commissioners has set the parish rates for the financial year 2021/2022 at £1.64 in the pound.

The rates remain the same as the previous financial year.

Despite ever-increasing costs, the local authority said that they have been able to achieve a balanced budget through ’careful spending during the last 12 months’.

The authority is also ’proud that Marown still maintains one of the lowest rates of any parish authority in the island.’

Commissioners chair Alison Lynch (pictured) insists that the standard of services provided, such as waste collection, won’t suffer as a result.

She said: ’Times are tough for people - some people have been affected by pay cuts and by job cuts.

’We’re not going to be taking money from our parishioners unnecessarily.

’We have left ourselves enough for the next 12 months, we don’t have an awful lot of capital expenditure in the next year - so it was a unanimous decision.’

She gave examples of some of the ’increasing costs’ that the authority is facing though:

’The refuse disposal charges at the Energy from Waste plant have gone up by around 3%, and the cost of our contribution to the Western Civic Amenity site has gone up by just over 5.5%.

’There are other small increase also, but we know that we can continue to provide the good service that we do, with no detriment to the rate payer - and I’m one of those rate payers, so I wouldn’t want to see our services suffer in any way.’

Marown Commissioners have set the parish rates for the financial year 2021/2022 at £1.64 in the pound.

The rates remain the same as the previous financial year.

The local authority said that it has been able to achieve a balanced budget through ’careful spending during the last 12 months’ and that they are ’proud that Marown still maintains one of the lowest rates of any parish authority on the island.’

Commissioners chair Alison Lynch insists that the standard of services provided, such as waste collection, won’t suffer as a result.

She said: ’Times are tough for people - some people have been affected by pay cuts, by job cuts.

’We’re not going to be taking money from our parishioners unnecessarily.

’We have left ourselves enough for the next 12 months, we don’t have an awful lot of capital expenditure in the next 12 months - so it was a unanimous decision.’

Mrs Lynch gave examples of some of the increasing costs faced by the local authority, which is based in Crosby.

’The refuse disposal charges at the Energy from Waste plant have gone up by around 3%, and the cost of our contribution to the Western Civic Amenity site has gone up by just over 5.5%.

’There are other small increase also, but we know that we can continue to provide the good service that we do, with no detriment to the rate payer - and I’m one of those ratepayers, so I wouldn’t want to see our services suffer in any way.’

The other local authorities in the Isle of Man have yet to announce or set their new rates.