Published on Friday 24 February 2023
Phil Broadhead, the newly elected Leader of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council will answer residents' questions on the council’s budget at a live Question and Answer session next week.
The budget was signed off at a full council hearing on February 21. Earlier that evening Cllr Broadhead was elected as BCP Council’s new leader following the resignation of Cllr Drew Mellor on February 13.
The Live Q&A session takes place on Tuesday 28 February from 11am to 11.45am.
Residents are invited to ask questions during the Q&A within the comments section and have them answered in real-time.
On the budget, Cllr Broadhead said; "This is a budget, which – despite serious global financial headwinds – balances the books for the forthcoming year, heavily invests into services to protect the most vulnerable in our region, continues the work of putting the Council’s finances into a long-term stable position and increases our unearmarked reserves.
"Like all councils, we’re facing some difficult choices. Since setting last year’s budget, the cost of running council services has increased by £55m over 22/23 and 23/24 due to inflation alone – as an example, it now costs an estimated £2m extra per year just to power the area’s streetlights.
"But where other councils are cutting libraries and leisure centres, we’re protecting core services and continuing successful programmes such as those that have helped reduce anti-social behaviour last year across our towns by around 20% compared to the previous year."
The session will be broadcast across the council’s main social media channels and is available to watch later for those unable to tune in live at: youtube.com/BCPCouncil