In the coming weeks, the council will agree funding for local services, council tax and proposals to save money. These decisions affect everyone, so the council is seeking views on the budget proposals.

The council faces big increases in demand for services and reduced funding from central Government. For example, the council has seen a three-fold increase in the number of people needing temporary accommodation in the last four years, a 43% increase in residents aged 85 in the last ten years and an increase in both children and adults with learning disabilities needing support.

Meanwhile, the annual grant from central Government has reduced from £50million in 2009/10 to zero next year.

The headlines from the proposals are as follows:

• The council is planning to spend £196million on the services that are used directly by local residents. Almost two-thirds of this sum will be spent on supporting and protecting vulnerable adults and children, with the rest of the funding being dedicated to things that benefit the whole community such as roads, transport, bin collections, libraries and leisure.

• Additionally, the consultation includes proposals for almost £94million of capital investments, including road maintenance, building new roads, providing new school places, replacing care homes with modern facilities and new integrated health and care hubs.  

• To help bridge the gap between the funding the council needs and the income it expects the council has a plan to continue to find ways to reduce spending by £14.8million through a range of saving measures and increase council tax by 1% to contribute towards funding services. This would be 29p extra a week in council tax for an average household (Band D property).

You can read more and have your say online here. Alternatively, you can pick up hard copies at one of our libraries or council offices.