Carlisle City Council set its budget for 2019/20 last night (Wednesday 20 February 2019) at a Special Full Council meeting.
The Leader of the Council, Cllr Colin Glover proposed the Executive’s budget. It was seconded by Councillor Les Tickner, Portfolio holder for Finance, Governance and Resources.
The Council needs to make savings of £1,237,000 by 2019/20. The Council has successfully achieved/identified over £9million in transformational savings since 2010/11.
Leader of the Council, Cllr Colin Glover, said: “We have kept our share of the Council Tax to a fair and reasonable level. We have also maximised savings and efficiencies, whilst protecting essential services and investing in the future of Carlisle.
“We are a growing city with an ambitious programme of schemes that will boost our local economy and provide lasting benefits to all our communities. We want to support the health and wellbeing of our residents and aim to target our resources towards the issues that matter – Keeping Carlisle Clean, providing employment opportunities and protecting our natural environment.”
Councillor Les Tickner, Portfolio holder for Finance, Governance and Resources said: “Thanks to the prudent management of the Council’s finances we are able put forward a realistic budget that delivers the priorities agreed by the Executive in protecting Council Tax discounts to the most vulnerable in our local communities.
“It encourages new jobs through business growth and new business to the City through Business Rate discount schemes and a business-friendly Carlisle Plan. It will deliver on our Healthy City initiative with provision of a rolling programme of Green Gyms and will see the redevelopment of an affordable, state of the art, Sands Centre leisure facility which includes a dedicated entertainment space. The budget also supports housing growth in all sectors including social housing.”
