Views sought on Lancaster City Council's budget

Residents, businesses and organisations are being urged to get involved and help Lancaster City Council decide its budget priorities for 2025/26 and ensure it is fit for the future.

The city council provides hundreds of services including waste collection, street cleaning, maintaining parks and playgrounds, providing CCTV and supporting arts, culture and entertainment.

To help it decide its budget for 2025/26, the council has just launched a new consultation into its budget and Council Plan. It’s open to residents, businesses and organisations 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 there is still some uncertainty around central government funding in the short and longer term, it is clear that the council will continue to face major financial challenges and this means prioritising where it spends taxpayers’ money.

“The council has already embarked on an ambitious programme called Fit for the Future, with the aim of transforming its services through becoming more commercial and embracing the use of more technology to become more efficient.

“But this will only go part of the way in meeting our budget deficits, so 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 11p in every pound (around £4.93 a week or £256.63 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 (12p) 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-consultation. The consultation closes on Sunday December 1.

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 on the following dates and times:

• Lancaster Library: Tuesday November 26 from 1pm – 4pm
• Morecambe Library: Thursday November 28 from 1pm – 4pm
• Carnforth Hub: Friday November 29 from 1pm – 4pm

Last updated: 18 November 2024