Carlisle residents are being given the chance to have their say on the 2019/20 draft City Council budget.
Carlisle City Council’s Executive Committee is consulting with local residents, businesses and organisations about next year’s City Council draft budget.
The Council needs to make savings of £1,237,000 by 2019/20. We have successfully achieved/identified over £9million in transformational savings since 2010/11 and now have a solid financial base in order to set our 2019/20 budget. Proposals are in place to achieve the balance of savings required by 2019/20 and no further transformational savings will be added to this total as part of this year’s budget process.
Leader of Carlisle City Council, Cllr Colin Glover, said: “Continued underfunding of Councils by central government, together with the uncertainty of future funding, make the challenge of balancing local budgets more difficult with each year that passes.
“We will continue to focus on protecting front line services and looking after the most vulnerable people in our communities, together with delivering our ambitious plans for the future, growing the local economy, providing good quality jobs and homes, improving the local environment and health and wellbeing facilities for all our residents and visitors. As a listening Council, we welcome the views of local residents and businesses, to help us shape the decisions we make, and we look forward to receiving feedback on our budget proposals for the coming year.”
Deputy Leader of Carlisle City Council, Cllr Les Tickner, added: “A draft budget has been prepared and we would welcome your comments and views before final decisions are taken at the budget Council meeting in February 2019. Following public feedback, we have produced a short consultation leaflet. This is available online and at the Civic Centre’s customer contact centre.
“We continue to recognise the challenges of reductions in RSG and uncertainty over other Government funding such as Business Rate Retention (and significant reductions in other revenue and capital grants) together with increased cost pressures. However due to our success to date in identifying transformational savings, we now have a solid financial base to set its 2019/20 budget. We are committed to delivering on our pledges and our priorities.”
Comments will be considered as part of the ongoing budget process and will be assessed by the Executive at their next meeting (Wednesday, 16 January). The final budget proposals will be discussed at Carlisle City Council’s Full Council on Tuesday, 5 February 2019.
A copy of the draft Executive budget is available to view at the Civic Centre’s Customer Contact Centre and is also available online by visiting http://www.carlisle.gov.uk/Council/Council-and-Democracy/Budget
Any comments can be emailed to [email protected] or write to: The Chief Executive, Carlisle City Council, Civic Centre, Carlisle, CA3 8QG by 9am on Monday, 14 January 2019.
