Budget
Budget consultation 2010/11 - second stage
Consultation ended: 19 February 2010
This consultation has now closed. Thank you to all of you who participated.
Your views count
The results of both stages of the consultation are being fed into the budget setting process and the final decision on the budget and Council Tax will be made at the council meeting on 2 March 2010.
We consulted with residents and business rate payers on the councils Budget 2010-11 in two stages:
Stage 1: budget simulator
A budget simulator was created as stage 1 of the budget consultation 2010/11. The simulator was launched on the 10 November 2009 and closed on the 1 February 2010.
The tool was used to inform residents of the challenges the council faces when setting its annual budget and council tax. The tool facilitated decreases only in the areas of expenditure in order for residents to understand the challenges that officers and members contend with when setting the council’s budget.
The simulator was promoted and discussed at our area forums (fora) and Leader Listens events through out November and December 2009. Posters were also displayed in libraries and libraries were given a briefing note on how the tool worked to brief their staff.
Stage 1 summary of results
- A total of 575 residents accessed the online consultation.
- Overall, over half of the respondents did not complete or change the budgets for the service areas.
- 57 residents recorded additional comments in the space provided.
- There were a handful of comments relating to the ‘decrease-only’ use of the tool.
- The budget online simulator showed the service area where residents wanted to reduce budgets the most were: Democratic Services (by 9.61%); Mobile CCTV unit (by 6.67%); council website budget (by 6.61%); planning budget (by 6.51%); planning, housing and regeneration directorate budget (by 6.16%). In addition, 120 respondents opted to reduce support services in some form.
- The services where residents indicated they would like the lowest reductions in budget were for: support for vulnerable children (3.58%); pavements (3.61%); day services for disabled adults (3.72%); support for vulnerable families (3.72%); recycling and refuse collections budget by (3.82%).
Stage 2: online qualitative survey on budget headlines
The second stage of the budget consultation was designed to collect respondents views on the councils published budget headlines and also, in response to comments from the first stage of the consultation, offer stakeholders significant detail about the budget proposals.
The consultation was launched on the 20 January 2010 and closed on 19 February 2010. It was promoted on Barnet Online, in Barnet Libraries via posters, through Facebook, Twitter and Barnet CommUnity.
As part of our statutory duty to consult with business rate payers, businesses were also personally invited to take part, by either completing the online survey, writing in with their comments or by attending the Leader Listens Business Breakfast meeting.
Stage 2 summary of results
Respondents broadly agreed that the budget headlines 
(PDF: 400KB) had identified the right level of savings and that Council Tax should be frozen next year. Of those who disagreed with the freeze, respondents wanted to see increased expenditure in Adult Social Services and Children’s Services.
In terms of us introducing charges for services they don’t currently charge for, respondents tended to disagree with this concept or say they ‘did not know’.
Email this pageLast modified by: Mike Godleman on 02/03/2010