TAX payers in a town could lose out on thousands of pounds to cover the cost of the abolishment of a town council.

Today (Thursday) members of North Herts District Council (NHDC) will vote on how to spend the money which has been left over after the Letchworth Garden City Council ceased on March 31, following years of controversy.

The remaining cash surplus of £17,000 will be transferred to NHDC.

The remaining asset from the town council is the mayoral chain, which was bought together with the coat of arms in 2007 at a cost to tax payers of £11,000.

The chain and the coat of arms are currently held at the First Garden City Museum in Letchworth GC and it is proposed they will be loaned to the museum, rather than given to the museum, in case a town council was to start up again.

The decision to abolish the town council follows a review conducted by NHDC at the request of the town council, after members of the specially-formed Help Eliminate Letchworth Parish Council (HELP) group were elected onto the council with the sole purpose of dissolving it.

As part of the review, two separate questionnaires were sent to everyone on the electoral register in Letchworth GC, as well as community groups and businesses.

An initial £30,000 was budgeted for the review but an additional £13,000 was allocated for a second questionnaire, which went out to everyone on the electoral register again in the interests of getting as wide a response as possible.

The total cost to NHDC of undertaking the review was £43,120.

In a report prepared ahead of tonight’s (Thursday’s) meeting, it is proposed that the £17,000 left over from the town council be put towards the costs of the review rather than given to the Letchworth area committee to be used for the town, which was what was initially suggested.

Chairman of Letchworth area committee Cllr David Levett said: “I would like to see the money go to Letchworth GC as all the tax payers have paid towards the review, but we do need to use that money to offset the cost of review.”

Former chairman of Letchworth Garden City Council Frank Lovett said: “Our preference would be to have the money given to Letchworth area committee to be used for the people of the town as they are the ones who paid out for the town council when we had it. We have made our wishes known but I understand that it is being proposed that the money is spent to cover the costs of the review. This is the cost of democracy but we acknowledge that this is at the discretion of the district council and we abide by that and respect it.”

Nigel Jury, who helped set up HELP in 2008, said: “The money should go back to the people of Letchworth GC or back to the town because they were the people who paid for it.”