Residents across Bath are being invited to have their say on Bath & North East Somerset Council’s plans to address its predicted financial shortfall.
Proposals include drawing from reserves and making savings, which will be discussed during a series of webinars where residents are being given the opportunity to give their views.
Three sessions called ‘Improving People’s Lives: our aims for the budget in 21/22’ will explore the council’s plans to deliver savings whilst continuing to provide frontline services, increase council tax and invest in services differently.
The webinars will look into how the local authority will have to:
- Deliver savings to enable it to live within its means whilst continuing to provide frontline services that support residents such as Adult Social Care
- Increase council tax to fund both inflationary pressures and increases in service demand and to ensure a fixed income stream
- Think and invest in services differently ensuring capital investment addresses council priorities.
Residents are being encouraged to put questions to Councillor Dine Romero, Council Leader; Councillor Richard Samuel, Deputy Leader and cabinet member for Resources; Will Godfrey, the council’s Chief Executive and Andy Rothery, Director of Finance.
Questions can be submitted in advance by email to [email protected] or by using the Q&A feature during the live discussion.
The first webinar will take place today, 15th December via Zoom and will be livestreamed on the council’s YouTube channel, as well as being made available to watch later.
The following two events are being held on 18th December and 22nd December.
Councillor Richard Samuel said: “The Medium-Term Financial Strategy agreed by cabinet in October was the first stage in setting our budget for the coming financial year and beginning to address the impact of Covid on our finances.
“We are now in a position to share more detail on how we plan to deliver our priorities at the same time as living within our means.
“We cannot assume that any further support will be given to us from the Government and therefore we have to take action by drawing from our reserves and making savings across all of our services.
“To make these decisions effectively in the best interests of residents, we need you to take part in the budget setting process.
“The series of webinars are a great opportunity to find out about our proposed budget for next year and to put forward your point of view.”
You can click on the links below to register in advance for the upcoming webinars or watch live on YouTube:
- 15th December 2020 – 5:30pm
https://bathnes.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dJ1B9uLeS-6d7cTIyoUpcw - 18th December 2020 – 2:00pm
https://bathnes.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vK1h_wXzTVmfopDJifeIlQ - 22nd December 2020 – 12:00pm
https://bathnes.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VL5Pc3ZBTUSckozanB1b0Q
