Caerphilly county borough council has faced significant budget cuts over the last two years and has needed to introduce a range of cuts to help deliver significant savings. 

Draft savings proposals for 2017/18 follow the Council’s key principle to limit the impact of cuts on front line services.  The draft savings proposals for 2017/18 total £8.653m but the vast majority of these will have no direct impact on residents.  (Draft proposals for 2017/18 are detailed in Appendix 1 of the report)

The draft budget includes a proposed increase of 1% in Council Tax for 2017/18 which is the same as last year.  This would equate to an increase of 19p per week for an average Band D property.

Resident and stakeholder views were sought on the draft proposals.  Views will be fed back to and considered by elected Members prior to the final budget for 2017/18 being agreed at a meeting of Full Council on Wednesday 22nd February 2017.

Method (What we did)

The council’s budget consultation took place over a 6 week period from 5th December 2016 until 14th January 2017.

A short questionnaire (Appendix 2 of the report) was developed to seek views on the draft budget proposal.  The questionnaire was made available on the council’s Website and promoted via social media.  The survey was also distributed to a wide range of key stakeholders and groups (as outlined in Appendix 3 of the report) via e-mail and in printed format.

Results

In total, 41 completed surveys were returned.  Whilst this figure may seem low, it was expected given the “low impact” of the list of proposed savings on residents.

In general, there was a positive response to the proposals set out and an acceptance that the council is doing the best it can in difficult circumstances.  A full digest of comments can be found in Appendix 4 of the report.  Comments about the senior pay issue were submitted as part of the consultation feedback.  These comments have been noted, but they are not included in this report due to the authority’s ongoing internal investigations.

Budget consultation summary report 2017 (PDF)