Results of council spending consultation

At the full Thanet District Council (TDC) meeting on 7 February Members voted through the Cabinet recommendation not to increase the TDC aspect of Council Tax for 2013/14. This decision means that the tax will remain at the same level for a fourth year. However, in the long term, with further Government funding cuts on the horizon, the outcome of the council’s recent budget consultation becomes particularly significant. In order to decide how to allocate the Council Tax to fund services and to make improvements, the annual public consultation on spending-priorities took place between 29 October and 7 December 2012. The results of that survey have just been published and feedback from the survey has been shared with the key managers and councillors responsible for setting the council's budget. The survey results are now available on the TDC website: http://www.thanet.gov.uk/council__democracy/consultation/budget_consultation_2013.aspx Cllr Rick Everitt, Cabinet Member for Financial Services, said: “We’re looking closely at the results as they influence our decisions on how we spend the budget which we have available.  “It is interesting that some of the top priorities are those in which everyone can play their part to make sure the area’s needs are met while in the process helping the council to avoid the need to allocate extra money to compensate for thoughtlessness. “For example street cleansing and waste and recycling head the list of things which respondents find most important and we certainly recognise this too:  We have around 50 staff operating 15 freighters making over 3.6 million waste collections a year. They do a really good job in all weathers but if we all do our part to bag up waste properly that can really help to keep costs down. “Similarly cleanliness and safety along our extensive coastline is also something in which we can all play our part so that beach inspections and water safety tasks can be carried out economically. “Community safety is yet another area where thoughtfulness, awareness and appropriate reporting of problems can do a lot to maintain the best aspects of our area and to target problems successfully. “I think the real message here is that the council has done as much as it can by stabilising Council Tax for a further year and we will allocate funds as effectively as possible, but everybody has it in their hands to help us enhance Thanet as a great place to live and work. It’s not just about what the council can do.”