{"id":243,"date":"2011-10-07T22:38:13","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T21:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/?p=243"},"modified":"2011-10-07T22:39:02","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T21:39:02","slug":"council-budget-consultation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/2011\/10\/council-budget-consultation\/","title":{"rendered":"Council Budget Consultation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Derby City Council has published its consultation document for\u00a0its next three years’ spending.\u00a0 It is available here<\/a>.\u00a0 Now is the time to respond to what it says – or what appears to be missing.\u00a0 This is\u00a0the time in the budget-setting process when\u00a0people are most able to alter what will happen, so although it doesn’t seem exciting, please help to make a difference.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The part of the budget that deals with highways and transport issues is “Neighbourhoods” starting on page 51, but it is helpful to read the ‘Introduction’ as well.\u00a0 This mentions in section 6 the Council Plan.\u00a0 Referencing one or more of\u00a0its aims\u00a0in your response to the Council may give your comments more weight – and the council officers and councillors more pause for thought.\u00a0 Of particular relevance to cycling might be “A thriving sustainable economy”and “Good health and well-being”. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0budget (see the table on page 56)\u00a0includes a\u00a0cut of over\u00a0\u00a3500,000 from the highways maintenance budget and a promise to replace\u00a0\u00a3500,000 of this\u00a0from the highways capital budget (see not on page 60).\u00a0 This will mean that there is less money for small scale improvement schemes.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Also of particular note are the final two paragraphs under ‘Budget Prioritisation’ on page 53 which\u00a0really says that some services will not be able to be provided due to reductions in the Local Transport Plan funding unless we get\u00a0Sustainable Transport Fund money – the bid for this has not yet even been written.\u00a0\u00a0With\u00a0reference to this point it is worth asking\u00a0the council to ensure that there is\u00a0funding for cycle training and travel planning in schools, to help meet the ‘aims’ mentioned above.\u00a0 The cut to road safety work might also be mentioned here (page 60)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You may also be concerned about the further cut of \u00a350,000 to the Climate Change Unit (page 58) which had in the past been able to run events like Ecofest and has done a lot of work\u00a0to cut the Council’s fuel bills, including by pushing for a council travel plan.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course it’s fine saying ‘don’t cut this’, but the budget does need to balance.\u00a0 Where might extra money be found, or other savings made?\u00a0 They proudly state that street lights won’t be switched off (which some other councils are now doing during the early hours), but should this be reviewed?\u00a0 They don’t intend increasing Council Tax, is this the right decision.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The online consultation form is here<\/a>, but you can also write or email\u00a0to your local councillors directly, which will carry more weight (as not many people do this!).\u00a0 If you do,\u00a0it would be wise also\u00a0to copy in\u00a0the Strategic Director of Resources, Roger Kershaw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Derby City Council has published its consultation document for\u00a0its next three years’ spending.\u00a0 It is available here.\u00a0 Now is the time to respond to what it says – or what appears to be missing.\u00a0 This is\u00a0the time in the budget-setting process when\u00a0people are most able to alter what will happen, so although it doesn’t seem… Continue reading Council Budget Consultation<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[9,8,10],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaigning","tag-council-budget","tag-cycling","tag-derby","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247,"href":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/derbycyclinggroup.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}