Public's budget wishes send a mixed message
Council chiefs have been given potentially mixed messages in a consultation exercise on public spending in Bath.
More than 100 people have submitted their thoughts to Bath and North East Somerset Council as the authority prepares to set its budget for the next financial year.
The council is expecting to have to make £30 million of savings in the next three years and has already come up with a raft of measures including the closure of some public toilets and the introduction of charges for touring exhibitions at the Victoria Art Gallery.
Asked what should the council do less of, the most popular suggestion was a reduction in "expensive highways/infrastructure projects", which may have reflected concern over the cost of the Bath Transportation Package.
Business Cards From Only £10.95 Delivered www.myprint-247.co.uk
View detailsOur heavyweight cards have FREE UV silk coating, FREE next day delivery & VAT included. Choose from 1000's of pre-designed templates or upload your own artwork. Orders dispatched within 24hrs.
Terms: Visit our site for more products: Business Cards, Compliment Slips, Letterheads, Leaflets, Postcards, Posters & much more. All items are free next day delivery. www.myprint-247.co.uk
Contact: 01858 468192
Valid until: Sunday, June 30 2013
But highways, cycle lanes, streets and public transport was also high on a list of services which people thought should be protected.
The highest priority for people taking part in the online and postal consultation was to protect the civic art gallery – which got more votes even than safeguarding services for children and young people, and looking after services for older people.
The consultation ran during November, December and January.
The results will be discussed by a council watchdog panel next Monday.
The resources scrutiny panel will be told that plans to dramatically reduce the number of council meetings had been revised.
This move is amid fears that councillors would lose all power to properly scrutinise decisions.
The council says that it is facing the harshest public sector funding climate since the Second World War.
But it claims that the vast majority of savings will not affect frontline services, and cannot be accurately described as cuts.
The final budget is due to be set on February 19.
Comments
by FredofoffBath
Thursday, February 07 2013, 5:03PM
“Great idea protect the art galleries over children, a new potential grooming ground for *****'s.
I think we can understand from this that a large proportion of respondants have never experienced or seen abuse and neglect - and only experienced the finer things in life. People can pay a couple of quid if they want to experience art, unfortunately people can't pay a fiver at a desk for access to safeguarding.”