Budget consultation timetable agreed

The Highland Council has agreed proposals for consulting with the public over options to identify major savings in 2011/12 and 2012/13. At its meeting on 11 February, the Council identified more than £12 million of savings in 2010/11 and more than £11 million of savings in 2011/12 and 2012/13. This still leaves a gap of £36 million to be closed in balancing the books over these two financial years

Today (Thursday), the Council agreed to conduct an extensive consultation exercise to identify how the budget gap can be filled. Comments will be sought on a range of potential savings identified by Council Services. The consultation will run from the end of March to the end of June 2010. It will be done by raising the issue of how to identify savings at various events and forums over that time, including ward forums and partnership meetings. Building on the experience of the budget discussion at Black Isle Ward Forum, budget issues will be considered locally next at a meeting of the North West and Central Sutherland Ward Forum on Saturday 27 March.

In addition, the new Citizens’ Panel of more than 2,000 residents, to be set up by the end of this month, will be asked for views. Already 1,300 people have signed up to serve on the panel. Budget Leader, Councillor David Alston will have a blog on the council website:www.www.highland.gov.uk asking the general public their views. Council staff and trade unions will continue to be encouraged to identify where savings can come from.

Councillor Alston said: "The consultation exercise is needed to raise public awareness of the budget challenges facing the Council in the light of the expected reductions in public finance nationally and the £36 million budget gap we have to plug. We also want to gather views on where savings can be found.

"We want to hear the views of those affected by budget change so that budget choices are well informed and the impact of budget change is understood and where possible mitigated. We need to be clear though that with a 12% reduction in public sector funding generally assumed from 2011 onwards, that business as usual is not an option. We will have to look at arranging services differently and possibly even stopping some activities."

A budget briefing document will be produced to support the exercise, setting out the way the council currently spends its budget and asking key budget questions to feed into the strategic reviews the Council is currently conducting.

The Council has a revenue budget of £607 million in 2010-11 and will also spend £87 million on capital projects.