County Council Budget consultation

Cumbria County Council is currently holding a consultation with the public about their forthcoming budget.

Items on the agenda includes issues like

* Should the council introduce a charge of £25 for resident's parking permits?

* Should the present level of subsidy for adult social care be reduced? (The proposal will not affect the poorest users, about 25% of the total, who will still get a 100% subsidy)

* Should the council accept the offer of a one-off grant payment from the government, approximately equal to an inflation increase in the council tax, to freeze the county council element of the council tax for one further year?

Cumbria CC have organised a series of six public meetings with residents, one in each district area: I attended the first of these meetings, which was the copeland one, last night in Egremont.

The Carlisle meeting is on 18th January in Richard Rose Academy

The Eden meeting is on 19th January at Penrith Methodist Church

The Barrow meeting is on 23rd January at The Forum

The Allerdale meeting is on 24th January at The Wave, Maryport

Finally, the South Lakeland meeting is on 26th January at Kendal Rugby Club

If this is more convenient, you can go to a meeting in another district or borough council area: for example, there is nothing to stop Keswick residents going to the Penrith meeting rather than the Maryport if that works better for them.

Attending a meeting is not the only way to have your say about these issues

* You can reply by freepost by writing to:

Budget Consultation
Freepost MWW6059A
The Courts
Carlisle CA3 8NA.

* You can email yoursay@cumbria.gov.uk

* You can respond online at cumbria.gov.uk.

Comments

Gilles said…
In Cumbria like everywhere, billions of pounds of our money is being used by public bodies without any involvement of local people. The People’s Budget is a campaign to help your community group understand how to persuade your local council, health organisation, police force or housing provider to give you a significant say in how budgets should be spent.

Now more than ever, when massive cuts are being made, ordinary people should be involved in deciding how our money should be spent. Trusting us to make decisions on how to spend council, police, housing and health money effectively isn’t new - Participatory Budgeting has been tested in over 150 places in the last five years all over Britain to make the best use of local public budgets.
11:54 am
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