22/12/2008 - Cumbrians invited to have their say on how to spend council cash : Cumbria County Council

An online 'budget simulator' which gives the public the power to make virtual decisions about where council tax should be spent has gone live.

The internet tool puts people in control of the public purse and allows them to make the decisions about where to spend and where to save.

The simulator is part of Cumbria County Council's 2009/10 budget consultation process and the decisions that online users make will help give councillors a clear idea of where local people's priorities lie. This information will help influence the final budget which determines how much the county council charges for its share of council tax. As well as the online consultation, the county council is conducting the same exercise in face-to-face public consultation exercises in all six districts.

The simulator asks users what cuts in services they would find unacceptable and also whether they'd like to spend cash investing in other services. Users only have a limited pot of money to spend or save and some changes are more expensive than others.

Issues that people are invited to consider include:

- Whether to modernise care homes by closing some and investing in other services.
- What level of care older people should receive as the number of over 85s living in the county increases.
- Whether to increase charges for residential care homes, home care and day care.
- Whether to close some of the county's smallest libraries with the shortest opening hours.
- Whether to reduce the number of fire engines at fire stations, or close some retained fire stations while still meeting national attendance standards.
- Whether to reduce the advertising budget to encourage recycling and waste reduction.
- Whether to reduce the council's support for the voluntary sector in Cumbria.
- Whether to invest in economic regeneration programmes to provide new employment opportunities.
- Whether to invest in new training and equipment for the fire and rescue service.
- Whether to invest in more trading standards operations enforcing age restrictions for sale of tobacco and cigarettes.
- Whether to invest in new measures to help the public deal with the effects of the economic downturn.
- Whether to reintroduce school clothing grants.
- Whether to invest more money improving the road network and repairing potholes.

The simulator takes about 20 minutes and is available on http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/communications/budget.asp. The deadline for responses is 8 January 2009.

The final budget will be decided at Full Council in February, but as part of the budget consultation county council officers have developed a range of possible options for consideration which could involve council tax rises by anything from 2% to 5%. A 0.5% change in council tax is equivalent to plus or minus £1m in expenditure on services.