Stratford's budget - the public has spoken

The public has spoken as Stratford-on-Avon District Council receives the results of the recent budget consultation exercise, Simalto.

The District Council is working on how to reduce its spending by around £3.5 million, following the announcement by the Chancellor of an average cut of around 28% to local government funding spread over four to five years.  This is likely to mean Stratford District Council changing from a £14.7m organisation to £12m.  The Simalto budget consultation exercise is one of a number of ranges of evidence that will help inform the budget setting process.

The scientific exercise has produced some clear messages across all the potential budget as the District Council endeavours to maintain services already provided to residents with minimum reductions in services.

The residents surveyed wish to maintain the current service provision in:

• Homelessness
• Fly Tipping
• Environmental Health
• Grass Cutting
• Business Support
• Car parking in Stratford Town
• Rural Transport
• Flood Defences

The public want to see further investment in young services such as play spaces, skate parks, sandpits and sport pitches and anti social behaviour and community safety.  As for savings the areas where residents expressed a preference for a reduction in service provision, based on the different saving scenarios include Council Contact Points, Affordable Housing, CCTV, Licensing, Pest Control, Floral Displays, Tourism and support and grants for community groups.   

Councillor Stephen Gray, Leader says: "The District Council is facing real financial constraints and it is vital that the residents of Stratford District are given a real, active role in forming the council's spending plans.

"The responses we have received from the consultation are very positive and present some interesting challenges; it is good to see that there is a high level of realism from those responses and they have given us a useful insight into how residents across the District feel. People can see that there is not a limitless pot of money and that savings have to be made.

"The results are still at the 'raw' data stage and we are looking at them closely.  I must stress that this exercise is just one piece of evidence that will help inform our future 4-year financial plan and budget for the District Council.  The public have given a clear indication where they would be willing to accept a reduction in services but equally there are also areas that they would like to see further investment in.

"We still need to find out our final grant settlement figure from the Government which won't be until the end of December and then we will have a better picture of the level of services the District Council can run with the available budget and we will be concentrating on the delivery of services that residents value most.

"We are very grateful to all those who took the time to be involved in this process." 

Background information

• The researchers carried out over 250 face to face interviews with residents from every council ward in the District.  The methodology used is known as SIMALTO (Simultaneous Multi Attribute Level Trade Off) and gives residents a real insight into the kind of difficult decisions the District Council has to make and allows them to decide where their own priorities lie based on real information.
  
  People were given a set 'budget' (made up of points) to prioritise the services delivered by the District Council that they feel are most important to them.  The points were then converted into money which reflects the District Council's budget.  Residents could choose to spend their points on keeping things as they are, cutting back or investing in the service areas that matter most to them.
   
  The results will be used as one part of the process to set the District Council's 5 year budget. 
• The District Council has been looking at a number of cost saving measures including raising additional income, reducing expenditure, systems review, natural wastage, voluntary early retirements and voluntary redundancies and has already identified savings of £383,000 for this financial year which are ongoing efficiency improvements and cost reductions, not service cuts, and the future senior management re-structure will produce an annual saving of £400,000.
• The District Council has already identified a Hierarchy of Savings  to help inform the budget setting process, which were adopted to establish an order in which savings would be addressed at The Cabinet meeting on 6 September.