Parish officials said in February that the parish had almost slipped into cash flow issues after losing more than a quarter of a million pounds from reserves over the previous couple of years.
Missing accounts for 2021, 2022 and 2023 were finally produced at the beginning of the year, and the parish brought its remede forward from April to February to get rates bills out to parishioners earlier and bring extra cash into the parish coffers.
It said this week that £1.55m. of the £1.82m. expected to be raised from ratepayers has been collected, and the parish was able meet operational requirements such as recycling and waste collection, as well as fulfil the projects outlined at the February parish meeting.
The parish introduced an online payment option this year, making it more convenient for people to pay their rates by card.
This has proved to be a popular way to pay with more than 900 parishioners, about 10% of accounts, choosing to pay their rates this way.
The parish has so far provided a substantial period of grace of over one month, recognising that the bills had landed at a similar time to the States TRP bills.
However, there remain more than 1,300 accounts still outstanding.
‘We wish to remind those parishioners who have not yet paid their rates to do so as soon as possible,’ said constable Ken Acott.
‘We intend to start to apply late fines and send reminders from 17 June.
‘Should any parishioners have mislaid their bill, or have difficulty in paying, please contact the parish office.’
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