South Kesteven District Council plans to spend £20,000 on Isaac Newton event
The event's commemorating the 300th anniversary of the physicist's passing
Council leaders aim to spend £20,000 on an event to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Sir Isaac Newton’s death – and also shared plans to put up council tax during a discussion on their budget.
South Kesteven District Council said an event named ‘Newton 300’ will take place next year in memory of the former physicist who discovered the laws of gravity and is one of the area’s most famous sons.
He was born in the small hamlet of Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth and attended The King’s School in Grantham. He died on March 31, 1727 at the age of 84.
Councillors previously heard that the authority is planning to take a similar approach to Thatcher Fest, which was held last year to mark 100 years since the birth of the late former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was born in Grantham.
At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, February 10, district council leader Ashley Baxter (Independent – Market Deeping and West Deeping) said: “I’m committing £20,000 towards the Newton 300 celebrations in 2027 which will initially be earmarked from the £100,000 events budget.
“But we will review the outturn position and I’m relatively confident that we can replenish the events budget accordingly from the outturn because we’ve managed our money well during this year.”
The district council is proposing to increase its share of council tax of 2.99% for the next financial year – the maximum amount allowed without holding a referendum.
This works out at £195.03 for South Kesteven services for a band D property – which is an increase of £5.66 for the year.
As part of its budget proposal, the authority is also planning to allocate £62,000 for tree planting in open spaces and a further £66,150 on maintaining existing trees in these open spaces.
It’s also proposing to increase its budget for the Community Grants Scheme from £100,000 to £200,000.
This provides grants to local organisations and charities and can be allocated towards projects, events or to improve community facilities.
The authority is also planning to allocate an additional £33,000 towards supporting Citizen’s Advice South Lincolnshire and to spend £10,000 on mobile CCTV cameras to monitor fly tipping hot spots across South Kesteven.
Coun Richard Cleaver (Independent – Stamford St John’s) said he supported the budget proposals.
He added: “These are all important things where we are building more resilience for our community.
“We are doing what we said we would do in terms of people’s sense of belonging, health and wellbeing in our district and I think we can take pride in that.”
Speaking after the meeting, Coun Baxter defended the proposed council tax increase and said it was necessary for the authority to continue to provide services to residents.
He said: “We need to maximise the quality of services for all the residents within the area.”
He added: “This is an increase in council tax that is barely keeping up with inflation, let alone the additional costs that are being born by councils.
“We are still not clear what money has been given to us for the new burden of food waste collection which is a government insistence.
“I welcome the food waste recycling but it’s not something we’ve chosen to do, it’s something that we’ve been told to do the by the government.
“There’s plenty of other things that the government has told us to do but, as I often say, they’re asking us to make bricks without straw. They’re asking us to do more and more with less and less.”
A final decision on the budget proposals will be made at a full council meeting on Thursday, February 26.