Gedling Borough Council is facing a potential funding gap of £1 million and is asking the public for their views before it decides to make significant savings and cuts.
The council will launch a survey to canvass views from residents and businesses to help inform how it constructs its plan from 2023 to 2027.
The local authority revealed the survey as part of a delegated decision on June 27 – which means it took place outside of a council meeting.
It will go live on July 4 until the end of the month.
The council says its funding comes mainly from Council Tax, business rates, central government funding and income from service users.
It says the current Council Tax for the average Band B property occupied by two or more people is £1,681 per year.
Of this, the council only receives £138, about 8 per cent. The rest goes to Nottinghamshire County Council, to the Police and Crime Commissioner and to the Fire and Rescue Authority.
In a report before the survey is launched, the council states: “Over the last decade, the council has had to respond to significant reductions in government funding, placing a greater reliance on local sources of funding (Council Tax).
“At the same time, we’ve seen increased demand for some of our services and rising costs in excess of funding available, a situation which has been worsened as a result of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Since 2015/16 in total we have faced a 12.4 per cent reduction in our available funds making us the seventh worst affected council in England out of 341 Councils. For the previous two years, 2020/21 and 2021/22 Gedling was the worst affected council in England.”
The council says it has worked hard to make savings of £6m during this period and have planned to deliver £1m more by “doing the same for less money” and “doing things differently”.
“We are proud to have been able to maintain high quality of services despite these substantial funding cuts and to deliver good value for money services that our community deserves.
“However, our current budget forecasts indicate that, in the absence of any additional government funding, we will need to find another £1 million of savings in the future in order to fulfil our legal obligation to balance the books.
“We will not know if Gedling will receive any increase in its funding until later this autumn when the government announces how much funding councils will get,” the council added.
“This consultation focuses on the challenge we potentially face if additional government funding is not forthcoming, and we have to consider spending reductions to fill the potential budget gap of £1m.
“We want to be open and honest about this possibility. We need to consider that we may have to make some difficult decisions in the near future, but before we do this, we would like to hear your views on how we might close the budget gap.”
The council is therefore asking residents whether Council Tax should be increased above the current limit of 2.9 per cent.
It is also asking the public how comfortable they would be with spending reductions to the following services, which include community events, leisure and community centres, theatre and the arts, parks and playgrounds, economic regeneration and neighbourhood wardens and CCTV.
It is also asking for public opinion on how they would feel if there were cuts to the number of times it completes some of services each year such as waste collection and recycling and street cleaning.
A simple way to save money would be to reduce the excessive payments made to councillors for fronting portfolios. Most are only in politics for the money.
They can pack in the woke ‘diversity’ nonsense for a start.
Which costs how much?
The government has cut 60% of the budget going by the figures! What information you using?
the amount of new houseing going up in the borough there should be a lot more revenue anyway.And if my wages increased every year by3% every year we would all be happy stop spending it on consultants on what should be common sense problems would help.
FYI D A Barnes
A portfolio holder receives an allowance of £7,522.96 a year before tax.
IE about £145 a week or about £116 a week after basic income tax of 20%
A really excessive payment
An the greasy palm jobs….they don’t figure into the equations. don’t say they don’t exist- as far back as the seventies GBCouncillors we’re using insider info to buy properties that had 95% grants on them….fact.
Stop spending money on cutting down perfectly good trees along the Jessops Lane track. With all the developments there will be no natural habitats left. A new track is a total waste of money for the amount of people who’ll use it. There’s a perfectly good track at the top. The country park is ok, but with all the paths is quite boring after a couple of visits .
Perhaps not spent 4 million on an Arnold Market. Really? 4 million? You’ve nicked over 300k from the Carlton Square development and not finished it have you? Land required for Redevelopement, the old Turf Accountants….still baron after what? Nigh on 3 years? And the rest of the shopping centre? GBC so full of bull and now your short? Bah. Shameless.
Perhaps a good way of saving the Borough Taxpayers money is a pay cut of Gedlings Executives! the Chief Executive is on at least £110,000 per annum.
The Various many other Executives for the many departments are on between 50 and a 100k per year! what do these people DO to earn this money?
Meanwhile, the Refuse collectors are on a measly £9.80 per hour for long, hard, literally back breaking work!
When are these pampered pooches going to crack down on people deliberately
contaminating their green bins? sneaking bags of garden waste at the bottom of their green bins, putting stinking food waste in carrier bags, soiled baby nappies and adult sanitary towels in their green bins…these are absolutely disgusting, but when those bins are rejected from being emptied an argument begins..This is because executives and councillors could not give a DAMN about this green bin system….
The Black general waste bins have become a second garden waste collection service, after the brown bins!…usually soil, lots of it, hedge cuttings, grass cuttings, etc, not to mention smashed up concrete blocks, paving slabs, cement bags, plaster bags, bricks, wall tiles, sometimes old smashed up toilets and small sinks, again smashed up….and the Councillors and executives are wondering why Refuse loaders are getting bad backs and dodgy joints?? it must be reaaly nice living in the world of an executive and those councillors, these people are a disgrace and have never done a hard days work in their lives!!!
let them come and volunteer to spend a month emptying these black bins and breaking their backs, plus having to argue with the public as to why their green bins have been rejected!! the stress of this job is becoming a nightmare…..
Ha, bad backs? All they do is wheel the bin to the lorry, and last time I looked they had wheels on them. They never moaned years ago when the bin went on their back and they had to fetch them from the back of the house….and return them too! Funnily Joe public can get it to the roadside yet your operatives cannot wheel it to the lorry without injury? Really? Don’t make me laugh.
Well said ,.
Stop giving staff extra days holiday for turning up for work. And you have higher than average sickness.
Clueless percy! Obviously you have not got a clue about the job! there is NO point trying to argue the points about the bins to a clueless dickhead like you Percy!!
Ooh, sticks and stones… truth hurts as they say.. Another snowflake eco warrior oh woe is me? Yawnnnn Xxxxxx. Bad backs my ar*e. Stress? Haha, your full of the proverbial. Pensioners pull their full bins up and down steps and long paths to the very edge of the road without complaint and all the crew have to do is wheel it a yard or two to the lorry and an empty one back? Yeah hard work my a*se. Get over yourself…..Everyday I see over 50 bin wagons empty their loads and there is one driving and the other two are either on their phones going in and coming out or fast asleep. Shattered you say? Don’t make me laugh. Want to know GBC bin mens hidy holes where up you can see them ALL asleep…been there for an hour, now that’s a good dinner break, the time it takes me to walk the dog and they are still there…how many places would you like me to name? There’s two in Stoke Bardolph for a start… you got no mirrors in your house? That’s why you can’t see a real dic*head when you comb your hair..
clueless percy strikes back!! You are indeed a dickhead! you have still not a clue what you are rambling on about!! you are yet another old cretin with loose dentures, is this what is upsetting you percy?? retire with some grace and dignity you old fool!! you clearly have no clue as to your endless ramblings, clearly deluded, perhaps you need a more secure nursing home?? yes, my opinion of you percy, has not changed, you are indeed a dickhead!!! prove your ramblings!! dickheaded old fool, and get those dentures repaired!!
Know any vocabulary other than rambling and d**khead? Brain cell overloaded from pulling the bins two yards to the back of the lorry then? Perhaps it’s the stress then of not getting your hours kip down the back lanes of local villages then ? Hard work? Don’t make me laugh. Go tell a pensioner whose dragged the bin 50 yards and up several steps to the edge of the road for you how stressed you are and how it’s back breaking. Listen to them laugh. Give it up , your boring me with lame justification for an easy mechanised task whose sole total labour is dragging the bin a few yards to the back of the machine and pressing a button. Need some ointment for that sore button finger? Oh wait….forgot, some are touch sensitive, you don’t have to press the button even…..