Published February 23, 2018 at 14:13
Councillor Andrew Walmsley, Portfolio Holder for Resources and Customer Services, has updated on the latest budget position.
Councillors will meet next week to agree the budget for 18/19 including Council Tax rates – you can find papers here.
Councillor Walmsley said:
Following the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, February 21 a range of budget decisions have been recommended to full Council next week where a final decision will be made. It’s no secret the Council has been hit by big cuts to our funding from central government, totalling £3m per year, the loss of funding from Lancashire County Council for recycling, and the loss of projected income from the Scout Moor decision among other things has significantly reduced our budget.
We have already had to make tough decisions like charging for the garden waste collection service. To balance the books, we will have to make more tough decisions such as increasing council tax, something we thought long and hard about but like other councils have no real choice.
While things are difficult in the short term, we are managing these challenges as best we can, we are putting in place long term solutions with a big drive on growing the Rossendale economy and bringing in more new investment. We will also continue to lobby for as much external money as we can get to make the borough a better place to live, such as fighting hard to get more money spent on our roads.
With the size of the cuts though, we need help – we can’t do everything on our own and so residents can help us with reporting fly-tipping and dog fouling and making littering a problem of the past.
It’s not all doom and gloom, there are many exciting things happening in the borough – such as the progress on Spinning Point, Bacup town centre being revamped, new businesses setting up in the borough and unique attractions such as Lee Quarry bringing visitors in.
We are an ambitious Council and we will continue to work with residents, businesses, community groups who are planting and litter picking across the borough and partners to make Rossendale a place people are proud to say they live and work and that people are keen to visit.