Public views wanted on council budget
Residents, businesses and organisations are being urged to get involved and help Lancaster City Council decide how it should bridge an estimated budget gap of £1.7million in financial year 2024/25.
Have your say on Lancaster City Council's budget
The city council provides hundreds of services including waste collection, street cleaning, maintaining parks and playgrounds, providing CCTV and supporting arts, culture and entertainment.
But with direct government funding now less than £1million a year, combined with the effects of inflation and increased demand for services, the council is faced with a budget gap of £1.7million in 2024/25. This will increase year on year, so decisive action is needed.
To help it decide where to make the necessary savings and/or identify opportunities to grow income, the council has launched a short survey to gather people’s views. It’s open to residents, businesses and organisation within the Lancaster district and will be used, alongside other evidence, to inform next year’s budget proposals.
Councillor Tim Hamilton-Cox, cabinet member with responsibility for finance, said: “While the immediate seriousness of Lancaster’s own financial position is not quite as bad as that of many other councils, core funding has dropped by around 40% since 2008/09 and we are faced with significant, and increasing, financial challenges over coming years.
“The council is continuously reviewing how services are provided to ensure they are delivering all they can for communities and the local economy. To help us make what may be difficult decisions when we set the council’s budget, we need to know which areas people value the most and the reasons why.”
To put the financial situation in context, although Lancaster City Council collects council tax, it only keeps around 12p in every pound (around £4.78 a week or £248.56 a year for a Band D property) to fund services.
The vast majority of your council tax goes to Lancashire County Council (73p), Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner (11p) and Lancashire Combined Fire Authority (4p). You can get involved by sharing your views on how the council's resources could be best used in a short online survey at Lancaster.gov.uk/budget-survey.
The survey closes on Sunday December 17. Anyone without access to the internet can pick up a paper copy of the survey from the town halls in Lancaster and Morecambe between 9am and 1pm, Monday-Friday.
The council will also be conducting drop-in consultation events with the first taking place on Wednesday December 6 at at the War Memorial Gardens in Carnforth from 10am until 12pm. This will be followed by a drop-in at Morecambe library on Friday December 8 from 10am-2.30pm. Further dates and locations will be announced once confirmed.
Last updated: 29 November 2023