Budget papers published despite absence of settlement announcement

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At that time, the announcement was expected to be made this week, but it now appears there will be no news until next week.

And the Council has decided it should publish its budget papers ahead of that, offering members of the public the chance to give it some consideration.

Cllr Brandon Eldred, Cabinet member for finance, said: “We had hoped that the Government would have made its announcement by now about how much grant local authorities can expect next year.

“That will now not happen until next week and we can’t in good conscience postpone the publication of our draft budget papers any longer.

“Depending on what the Government announces, we might have to make further amendments to the draft budget, which we will discuss at Cabinet.

“We would invite people to take a look through our papers and consider commenting during the consultation period which starts after next week’s meeting.”

The Cabinet meeting was originally set to take place on Wednesday, 13 December, but was postponed for a week, meaning the final budget-setting meeting has also been pushed back to ensure sufficient time for consultation. This will now take place on Wednesday, 21 February.

Visit https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Q756QMW to engage with the consultation.