Tough choices

Why we have to make tough choices

The Government has cut our funding by 28 per cent - nearly a third - and so we have been forced to make tough choices.

Although we raise money from council tax, a lot of our funding comes from the Government in the form of grants for particular services. However, this money has been cut 28 per cent over the four years.

The Government has said a most urgent priority is to tackle the UK's record deficit in order to restore confidence in our economy and support the recovery. They are challenging us to be more efficient and make use of any powers handed to us from central government in order to improve debt collection, increase income or look at different types of service delivery. However the scale of the reduction in our budgets means we have to make a lot of tough choices about the services we provide.

We are doing everything possible to save money by freezing pay, reducing staff and sharing services with our neighbouring councils. We are selling underused council buildings and exploring how to make more revenue from our parks and open spaces from concerts and public events. This is helping but we still have to make decisions that allow us to set a balanced budget for the coming year.

How have we made those tough choices?

We have been holding targeted public consultation with representatives from groups most affected by the changes we have to make.

Where can I find out more?

You can find out more by viewing the agenda for the meeting of the council on 29 February 2012. This meeting took the final decision on the budget for the council from April 2012. 

Find out more about council meetings and how to get involved.