Town Council :: Council, Surgeries, Councillors, Minutes :: Witham Town Council :: Witham is a pleasant Georgian town with a history that dates back to the time of King Alfred located at the very heart of Essex midway between Colchester and Chelmsford.

Welcome to the Witham Town Council website.

The Council exists to serve the interests of residents within Witham and is often the first point of call for those with a problem or query about local government services.

The Council provides a number of facilities and services to Witham's residents. We have ownership and responsibility for many of the amenity areas in Witham, for example, the River Walk and Whetmead nature reserve.

The Council is proud of the close working relationship with many of the community organizations in Witham and supports financially some key volunteer bodies such as the Citizens Advice Bureau. We work with well known fundraising bodies such as the Rotary Club and Lions to provide the Town's Christmas Decorations.

The Council also part funds the Witham in Bloom Conservation Group who coordinate the town wide competitions and awards, and actively supports the Twinning Association in maintaining links with our German partner town - WaldbrÖl.

As the voice of the community the Council comments on all planning applications made within the Town, plays a significant role in helping to foster community safety, liasing with Essex Police and Braintree District Council. We work with a number of other local organizations and agencies to provide a focus for services and activities but we also consult extensively in order to stay in touch with Witham's many communities of interest. The latest example of this will be the revision of Witham's Town Plan where we hope to capture the views of several thousand of our residents to update our vision for the future.

Thus the Council seeks to ensure that we both understand Witham's needs and represents those to the outside world. While we try to look after the needs of everyone in the community we were one of the first Councils to give young people a voice through the Youth Council and we focus resources on our elderly with the subsidised two days a week lunch club.

Local Government services and funding

Witham Town Council is one of a number of local government bodies providing services to local residents and as such is funded mainly by a portion of the Council Tax - our "precept". The average Band D tax is around £1320 per year and Witham's portion of that is about £47 - less than £1 a week.

Essex County Council, which provides county wide services such as education and highways, takes the largest portion of the tax at £960/year. Braintree District Council is the Council Tax collection authority and provides services such as housing and waste collection and takes £143. The Police and Fire Authorities take the balance of the tax, about £169.

The Town Council is unique among all those organisations in that we do not receive any direct government grant to help subsidise our Council Tax element and all of the money we raise must be spent for the benefit of Witham's residents.