Snow me the money!

Posted on 25 January 2013 by ali.marks

The scrutiny of the 2013/14 budget is in full swing – this week all the scrutiny committees had a close look at the proposals for the services they usually review and how they’re going to be funded over the next 14 months or so.

It’s the joint budget day on Monday, 28 January, when all the scrutiny members will come together and draw up one collective set of recommendations to the Cabinet. The Council is still operating in a difficult financial climate and still has to reduce its budget year on year, probably until 2017/18. It is not surprising, therefore, that scrutiny members generally supportive of the budget proposals but nevertheless took the opportunity to highlight a few issues, for example:

–        worries that the Council might reach its tipping point in relation to its capacity to deliver all which is required of it,

–        the unknown (financial) impact of the welfare benefit reform and how difficult this is to plan for,

–        the state of the highway network after all the flooding which hit the county from July until December last year and the expensive repairs of any structural damage which is still not fully assessed.

You can watch the webcast on Monday and it’s still not too late to get in touch with us if you have any burning issues which affect you – just drop us a line (scrutiny@devon.gov.uk) or give us a call on 01392 384383. We’ll keep you up to date with the budget setting process for the next financial year 2013/14 throughout January and February.

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