10
December
2015
|
07:56
Europe/London

Consultation responses to be fed in to budget considerations

The consultation was launched on October 20 with the council at that time estimating it may have to save up to £50m on top of the £290m it is already in the process of saving from 2010 to 2018.

In addition to the 3,631 responses more than 450 people attended four public meetings, four petitions were received and several people wrote letters. The consultation closed on November 30. Further details can be found here .

The council’s cabinet will recommend a budget on January 26 and this will then be considered by all 63 Oxfordshire County Councillors on February 16.

The budget will then be revisited and refreshed in each individual year in the four year period up to 2020.

Difficult times for local government

Councillor Ian Hudspeth, the Leader of Oxfordshire County Council, said: “We thank all of the people who responded to the consultation, whether online or by coming along to one of our public meetings.

“These are difficult times for local government and there are tough choices ahead. The consultation feedback will help shape those choices. We’ve listened and heard what people had to say. That was always our intention in transparently publishing savings options much earlier in the Autumn than would normally have been the case.

“In the main we feel that in giving their feedback people understood and acknowledged the extent of the financial issues faced by local government – even when that feedback was passionately defending the future of one or more individual services.

“We will learn more about our finances in December and January before finally setting a budget in February. That budget covers the 2016-2020 period and we will revisit the budget in every one of those four years.”