To agree budget priority consultation arrangements to inform the budget setting process for the 2019/20 development of the medium term financial strategy (MTFS).

The cabinet member finance and corporate introduced the report and highlighted that the council has to set a balanced budget.   As part of this process, a timetable needed to be published and the council were responsible for consulting with all residents of Herefordshire.    The consultation would be via an online survey and awareness would be communicated through a wide range of media streams.    Members were also reminded that there would be a member’s briefing on 4 July at 5.00 pm.

The group leader for the Green Party commented that the previous year’s online consultation was poor and did not work very well on mobile phones.   It was hoped that there would be more business input and that the views of the parish councils would be taken into consideration. 

It was noted that the engagement of the parish councils took place in a number of ways and that there would be a range of survey questions. 

RESOLVED

That:

(a)       the timetable for making proposals to Council for the adoption of the MTFS 2019-23 and the 2019/20 budget be approved as follows:

·        consultation – 5 July to 21 September 2018

·        Cabinet – 31 January 2019

·        Council (approve budget and MTFS) – 15 February 2019

·        Council (set council tax and precept – 8 March 2019

(b)       it be recommended to Council that the budget meeting date be moved from 1 February 2019 to 15 February 2019;

(c)       the approach for consulting on budget proposals for 2019/20 as set out at paragraph 11 be approved; and

(d)       the scrutiny committee chairpersons be requested to make suitable provision in their respective committee work programmes to enable scrutiny members to inform and support the process for making cabinet proposals to Council.