Visiting Cabinet Representative
Councillor Fleur de Rhé-Philipe, Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Risk, will talk about the Council’s budget, and respond to any questions.
Minutes:
Councillor Fleur de Rhé-Philipe, Cabinet Member for Finance, Procurement and Risk, provided an overview of the Council’s current pressures and challenges. The national financial constraints along with the increase in young and elderly people in Wiltshire were shaping the way that Council services would be commissioned and delivered in the future.
Councillor de Rhé-Philipe outlined the main challenges that the Council currently faced:
· Reductions in Government grant funding
· Protecting the vulnerable
· Investing in key services
· Keeping council tax low
· Resolving other cost pressures.
In the discussion that ensued, the following points and issues arose:
· The use of volunteers, as proposed for libraries, could be used in other areas where appropriate.
· Larger libraries with proposed cuts in opening hours could utilise volunteers to keep opening hours at the same level.
· The budget for 2011/12 had not been set yet so it was not known whether there would be any changes to the Area Board budgets.
· In terms of privatisation of services, this may be considered in the future, but not until the Council was satisfied that service provision was at the right level first.
· All related Powerpoint slides that had been used at the Budget Forums would be on the Wiltshire Council website soon. Figures used were the revenue costs of borrowing capital.
The Chairman thanked Councillor de Rhé-Philipe for her presentation.