Councillor Peter John, Leader of the Council, to introduce the item followed by an interactive consultation exercise.
Minutes:
Councillor Peter John, Leader of the Council, explained the exercise was for residents to decide how they would save the money required to be taken out of next year’s budget. A similar exercise had to taken place in 2010 when the council had to make large savings from the budget.
So far the administration had taken out about £90 million from a variety of services and a reduction of the number of senior posts. Most savings had been made behind the scenes and no libraries or leisure centres had been closed.
Kevin Dykes, Senior Development Officer (Inclusion), summarised that the idea of the service was for residents to consider what the most important services were to them and to protect those. A booklet had been circulated at the meeting which highlighted the eight services in the council and the current level of spending within those departments of the council. There were display boards in the hall with the service breakdown on them and a box next to them. Residents were given green cheques and asked to put those in the box (service) according to what was important to them and their community. The council was looking to make a further £25 million in savings and residents were given red cheques to place in the box (service) where they would reduce expenditure.
Following on from the exercise, officers would pull all the comments together and report back to councillors. The budget exercise had also taken place over the summer in the parks and markets and at the youth community councils and the pensioners centre. There was also an online survey and paper survey.
Contact kevin.dykes@southwark.gov.uk or Tel. 020 7525 5601.