Saturday, 29 January 2011

City Council budget setting

It has been a busy time on the City Council with lots of meetings involved in setting our budget for next year.

The leader of the City Council, Sian Reid, has written a short piece about the priorities and process for the Liberal Democrats on the Council on the Newnham LibDem website.

Here it is:
The council has been working very hard to save money and drive our costs down. We have cut our cost base by about £2m and we will continue this over the next three years to find over £3m more of savings.

We are all dedicated to preserving important services and doing what we do more efficiently. Over 40 jobs will go next year, as in the past years, though five are being created too.

Our grant settlement from the government was unfair, and we are fighting it. However our good savings track record and our cautious forecasting mean we believe we can accommodate this bad news.

These are difficult times but our priorities remain unchanged, to protect services for the vulnerable and make sure our residents really benefit from growth. We are also making sure that we continue to care for our streets and open spaces.

In light of this, we have put together a modest spending programme. It allows us to invest now so that we can save money in future years, and protect the environment.


One of the jobs being created is an extra City Ranger post. I'd like to praise King's Hedges' Ranger Joe (who we share with bits of other wards) for the superb work he does. I am pleased the City Council will be able to expand this programme.

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