Have Your Say in Difficult Times on Council Savings

As you may be aware, Bedford Borough Council must find £36 million of savings - over a quarter of its current net budget - over the coming four years in order to balance the books. We cannot hide from this - the Council has a legal requirement to balance its budget and £36 million is the funding gap which has to be closed to achieve that. What we can do, however, is to work with all parties on the Council, with staff and crucially with residents to make sure the savings are made carefully and in the fairest way possible. To that end, the first set of proposals on how to make those savings, agreed by all groups on the Council, are now out to public consultation. You can find details of the proposals, and take part in the consultation online, at www.bedford.gov.uk/budget2012. Also, in order to make it as easy as possible for people to give the Council their views, we have for the first time produced an interactive 'budget tracker.' This online tool gives you the opportunity to put together and submit an indicative Council budget. It's a simple tool, which enables users to have their say on where the Council should look to increase revenues and where it should try to find savings. The results from these submissions will then be collated and fed in to assist in the difficult decisions that we face. Inevitably the tracker is not particularly detailed, but I hope people find it a useful and straightforward way of taking part in the process of meeting the huge challenge of delivering these vast savings fairly. You can use the budget tracker here: https://youchoose.yougov.com/Bedfordbc

In addition to using the above council channels to have your say on how the Council should look to meet the £36 million funding gap, you can also let me know directly. Click on the link on the front page of mayordave.org.uk to take part in my survey and give your views on Council savings during these difficult times. Only by working together during this period of vastly reduced budgets can we ensure that we take the right decisions for our communities across Bedford Borough.