Full Council on Tuesday night

The long agenda for the full Council meeting last Tuesday night heralds the fact that this is 'budget time'. Our Chairman of Performance presents the budget and runs through the salient issues finalising with the statement about next years Council tax. We will be freezing this tax again this year much to the delight of just about every resident I have spoken to.We also operated within our budget for this year. However we may be building into a bit of a problem as indications are that as a result of central government reductions in the future we estimate further savings needed of some £600k by 2015. I for one am very concerned as to how we are going to achieve this whilst maintaining the level of front line service we have all become used to. I have initiated a further review of all areas of cost which will include all subsidies and introducing a program of consistency across the Borough in respect of incomes. My message is that this Council will have to concentrate on it's core business and those organisations who have benefited from financial support will have to seek that support from elsewhere. Tough times call for tough decisions and I think that we must revisit every area to ensure efficient, smarter working.I shall be finalising the Council members re-structure in the next month with the aim of achieving the same.