Published on Thursday 01 December 2022
On Thursday 8 December, Leader of BCP Council, Drew Mellor will answer questions on the Council’s budget and what it is doing to tackle the challenges of the current financial environment head on.
Taking place next week from 11am to 11:30am, BCP Council’s latest Live Q&A session will focus on the Council’s plans to deliver a balanced budget and future finances.
Councillor Mellor, said:
"Like other local authorities across the country, as well as families and businesses, we are facing significant pressures on our budget.
"That’s why we’ve taken a proactive approach to prioritise our proposals. We’re already on target for a £8.5 million surplus in this financial year which is helping us with our plan to balance the budget for next year (23/24).
"Good budget management in a time like this means preparing for changes, even if we don’t need to make them. And that involves us talking to people now about how we can deliver services in a different way. We recognise you may have questions about this and the work we are doing so the Live Q&A is a great opportunity to ask your questions.
"We also hope to use this session to gather feedback on what you feel are our most important services and any ideas you have on how our communities can work more effectively together in the future. This will contribute to the ongoing work to prioritise proposals for next year’s budget setting due to take place in February 2023.’’
Ahead of the upcoming budget session residents are invited to submit questions in advance. There will also be the opportunity for people to ask questions via the comments section and have them answered in real-time. In a change from previous hour-long sessions, this will be a one off purely budget focused Q&A, shortened to half an hour.
The session will be broadcast across the council’s main social media channels and residents are asked to submit questions in advance via: LiveQandA@bcpcouncil.gov.uk