Questionnaires will be dropping on
to the doormats of 2000 residents throughout St Edmundsbury this week asking
people to help the borough council save £3.5 million through changing services
or raising more income. And all residents in the borough can take part through
the online consultation at: www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk
Cllr John Griffiths, St Edmundsbury
Borough Council Leader, said: “We will have £3.5 million less to spend over the
next couple of years so there are some very tough decisions to be made. We are
consulting on a number of ideas before – not after – any decisions are made and
and I stress that these are only ideas for possible consideration in the
future. This is your money we are talking about, whether it comes from taxes
paid to Government or through Council Tax, so I encourage anyone who lives in
the borough to let us know your views, and your own ideas, through the online
consultation. You will be helping councillors to decide how we can deal with
our £3.5 million budget gap.”
The consultation asks some very
specific questions, usually with indications of the potential money saved, or
new income generated (such as raising £20,000 through charging to use the Abbey
Gardens toilets, for example, or saving £50,000 by moving the Tourist
Information Centre to Moyse’s Hall Museum). It doesn’t cover every council
service, because savings may already have been made, or because the timing is
wrong. The apex is an example – it was scheduled to be looked at two years
after it opened, so will be reviewed in late 2012. The consultation closing date is 4 October and the council
will take consultation responses into account during the autumn budget-setting
process, with the final budget set in February 2012.
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