Deciding which services to protect and which ones to change
It’s that time of year again when local authorities, Town and Parish Councils and the emergency services set their budget for the next financial year.
As they look ahead they will be deciding how they can continue to deliver essential front line services, which services they could cut and if they need to collect more money from residents through council tax.
On Thursday 1 February, South Hams District Council will be laying out how it plans to spend its budget next year, and it looks like councillors will have to make some tough decisions.
Cllr John Tucker, Leader of South Hams District Council said: “As we have been saying for a number of years now, the amount of money that we get from central government to pay for services has been reducing. It is therefore inevitable that we are proposing to increase Council Tax by the maximum that we are allowed to increase it by and that is £5 a year on a band D property.
“A number of the proposals that we have put forward to deal with the budget gap in recent months have failed to gain support and we are now in a position where we are going to have to cut some of our non-statutory services in order to protect the statutory front line services. Even some of the frontline services such as recycling and waste may need to change in order for us to balance the books.”
Statutory services in the South Hams (these are services that the council has to provide) include recycling and waste, licencing, planning, environmental health, looking after the homeless, administering benefits and collecting Council Tax and Business Rates.
Non-statutory Services in the South Hams (these are services which the council currently provides, but is not required to provide by law) include public toilets, garden waste collection, grant funding and lifeguarding.
Cllr Tucker continued: “The changes to the non-statutory services which we are considering include closing public toilets, installing pay on entry or giving them to local communities to run, reducing partnership grants and reducing the amount of lifeguarding we provide on private beaches.
“In addition to this if we stop accepting cash and cheques at our offices, we can make an instant saving. Another way for us to change how we operate is to increase charges for some of the services we provide or increase the amount of property we own and rent it out. Providing beach huts is one way other councils have generated an income.”
All of these proposals will be discussed at the next meeting of the South Hams District Council’s Executive on Thursday 1st February, before being taken to full council for approval on 22 February.
Cllr Tucker concluded: “We do not like having to make cuts and increase fees, but there is only so much money in our budget. We will continue to bring forward proposals to help us generate an income, but our objective right now is to balance the budget for next year and continue to provide a good level of service to the public.”
Balancing the budget is an ongoing task for South Hams District Council every year, and they are encouraging residents who have questions, are concerned or who would like to be part of the ongoing discussions with the Council about the future of the services, to speak to their District Councillor, join a District Council focus group and join the conversation.
For more information see www.southhams.gov.uk/news. The full budget papers can be seen at http://mg.swdevon.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=149&MId=497&Ver=4
ENDS
www.southhams.gov.uk
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