Public consultation commenced
following Cabinet on 20th December and will run until
31st January. This is approximately six
weeks and is in line with previous years. Consultation will centre
on an online survey of the type that has worked well in previous
years. This will be promoted through
social media and press releases. The
dates of the consultation period were publicised on the Council
website shortly after the date of December Cabinet was
confirmed.
The formal consultation follows a
pre-budget phase where officers attended four public venues and
distributed surveys to ascertain views on how the Cabinet uses its
budget.
A date of January 22nd has
been set for a budget public engagement event to be held at Newport
Centre. (Cabinet Member and senior officer involvement is being
decided).
In addition the proposed Council Tax
rise will be subject to public consultation using bus wifi which last year received nearly 4,000
responses.
Officers will be working with the
Fairness Commission to facilitate budget engagement with the 50+
Forum, and BAME groups.
Officers work with contacts in
partner organisations to cascade details of the consultation
to hard to reach groups e.g. through
GAVO’s networks.
Schools are consulted on via the
School’s Forum where they devote a meeting to this in
January, as well as feedback from both the secondary and primary
Head-teacher groups.
Internally,
the budget will be reviewed by all the Scrutiny Committees and with
staff/teacher unions via the Employee Partnership Forum
Senior
Officers will be available to attend Ward meetings where they are
scheduled / arranged to take part in the Consultation period set
out above.
I hope this
clearly shows that the consultation arrangements are robust and
should ensure a wide range of feedback and views. As I set out in
our Cabinet meeting on the 20th December, I wish to
encourage as ...
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