RESIDENTS, council tax and business rate payers across South Gloucestershire are being asked to have their say on the council’s budget for next year.

The council expects to spend in the region of £571million over the next financial year, including refuse collection, street cleaning, planning, social care and road maintenance.

This budget is based on an assumed central Government contribution of £91.5million towards general services and £195.6million specifically for schools.

While the outline budget at this stage is based on a series of assumptions about central government funding, each year the public are invited to comment on the council’s priorities and council tax levels for the coming year.

The council have proposed repeating last year’s council tax increase of 1.99 per cent to help cover increased costs in providing services. It is also proposed to levy the additional three per cent adult social care precept, the money raised from which will go directly to providing support to some of the most vulnerable people in the community.

Both increases were included in the forward plan outlined in last year’s budget, which was designed to allow the council to better plan for the future by having a clearer idea of funding levels year on year.

It is anticipated that these changes will mean an increase of approximately £67.84 per year in overall council tax bills (or equivalent to £5.65 per month) for a band D household.

Despite increases in previous years, we still anticipate that current annual spending will be more than our income through to 2021/22. This means that further tough decisions will be needed in the coming years.

Efficiency measures implemented by the council from 2011-17 have resulted in a total of £63.3million, which the council said has been done, wherever possible, with a priority to protect frontline services.

Further savings of £10.5million per year are also set to take place between 2018 and 2020 across 2018/19 and 2019/20.

More information on the proposed budget can be found in the cabinet papers considered on November 6 - https://council.southglos.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=134&MId=10105.

South Gloucestershire Council cabinet member for resources, Cllr John Goddard, said: “We have a strong record of delivering efficient services to our community and to achieving good value for council taxpayers’ money.

“We are committed to continuing to protect the key services which residents and businesses rely upon as best we can, even as we continue to make the savings we have to in order to balance the books.

“All of our council tax and business rate payers have a stake in these proposals and so I want to encourage everyone to take part in this consultation process.

“We want to hear your views on this budget, not just in terms of how much we allocate to a particular service, but to hear from people more broadly about the priorities they would like us to apply in making the decisions ahead.”

People can share their views by emailing consultation@southglos.gov.uk, by phoning 01454 868154, by completing a consultation survey at https://consultations.southglos.gov.uk/consult.ti/Budget2017/consultationHome or by writing Freepost  RTXL-YJXJ-BXEX, South Gloucestershire Council, Corporate Research & Consultation Team, Budget 2017, Council offices, Badminton Road, Yate, Bristol, BS37 5AF

The consultation closes on January 12, 2018 and the results will be considered by full council in February 2018.