Residents asked to help balance Wirral Council's budget

Wirral Council is asking residents to help balance their budget, through an online budget simulator.

Last year, the Council lost £51m of government funding and this year there is a ‘gap’ of £25m between its income and projected spend.

As part of the drive to balance its budget, the Leader of the Council has written to every household in the borough asking residents to tell them where they would make savings and where they would invest Council funds in 2012.

The simulator shows what the Council will spend next year. The money is broken down into five different areas; Your Neighbourhood, Children & Young People, Adult Social Services, Your Economy and Your Council.

People can look at each of the budgets and decide to reduce them, increase them or leave them unchanged after considering the consequences of each option. They can also make suggestions on how to increase income.

The budget simulator works in three simple stages, by people adjusting budget funding, reviewing the changes and submitting decisions, remembering to recommend savings of at least £25m.

Feedback from the Simulator will be reported back to Cabinet in December and used to help identify priorities for saving or investment in the budget.

Leader of Wirral Council, Councillor Steve Foulkes said: "Like all local authorities we are going to have to make some tough decisions. We will continue to assess our ‘back-office’ functions to see where costs and bureaucracy can be reduced, but this will not be enough to bridge the projected budget gap."

"We need to have a real open, honest conversation with local residents about how we deal with our financial situation."

Further information:
Wirral Borough Council