Budget and council tax proposal 2023/24

I would also agree with previous comments that social care should come from central government, however given the options presented i am of the view that drawing from reserves is acceptable so I would support Option B. 

I see no issues with drawing from reserves, that is why they are there. For the options presented, I would support option B as all are similar. It would have been good for a further option to allocate more to adult social care.

Option A at the most , ideally zero increase as low paid workers are really struggling. Lots of ways to save money, use all your reserves for a start as by next year Lcc may be gone, share facilities with others, work from home to the max so you can sell off county hall and cut back the oap bus passes for a start to just what they are entitled to and charge for things you can do eg call connect and library fines. But please no tax rise thank you.

1st - "community wellbeing" - drop exerything in this category, it is a populist and meaningless concept/grouping that provides nothing of value (long/mediem term) to any community. It is a squandering waste of public funds. Every manager/employee associated with those "activities" should be made redundant as they are fulfilling non-jobs only to satisfy box-ticking, but still at the unjustified expense of the taxpayer.
2nd - "Option A" - 2%+0.99% for the 2.99% precept. I also criticise and formerly complain about your disingenuous presentation of numbers to decieve the the electorate, 0.99% is 1% so say what it actually amounts to and stop dicking about, there's nothing clever about your infantile deception attempt. Whoever the culprit with that idea on the Executive should be sacked for gross-misconduct.

This is poor. You're basically asking people to agree to an increase despite all the cost of living increases. I dont want an increase AT ALL. I am already struggling month to month. OPTION A is only thing I would be prepared to agree to.

Option C - it’s about time the public were clearly told the true cost of public services; once the monies are made available to the Council, the public will expect better services. We need to ensure that the ageing demographic is looked after appropriately.

I don't think you should be raising Council Tax at all at a time of massive inflation and cost of living crisis. Who can afford it? If you raise Council Tax by 3-5%, you must raise salaries by 3-5%, except for those on top rate tax brackets. Balance the budget by reducing expenditure on roads; prioritise children and adult social care; reduce the numbers of senior managers and make decision making and commissioning and more efficient (more empowered decision making and leaner process) and therefore cost effective. Council processes are laborious and costly. Use more of the reserves. Be transparent and accountable about ethical investment of reserves and unspent budget. Don't use hotels for meetings. Be frugal in the use of resources. Put pressure on government for proper funding of adult social care. Use what you have more smartly. Be seen to reduce wastefulness. Generate more income from assets.

I don't have enough knowledge to confidently comment except for a couple of comments one being that generally the highways are in a very poor state with constant requests to fix dangerous potholes. You should not be relying on public reports, you should have dedicated people to do the reports. The other would be that I don't want to see my council tax increase again. I see increases every year without an understandable reason particularly with increases for the police. I never see a policeman, where are these increases going? Being cynical I would expect it goes to increased pay for people at the top.

The consultation process should help the Executive to decide on the most appropriate option to recommend - not the other way round.

Given the financial pressures on local authority and NHS services adversely impacting on the quality and quantity of services available to the public, and reducing reliance on reducing the County Council's reserves, which may be needed if the financial situation worsens, it would seem that the most appropriate and prudent approach would be to go with Option C.

This recognises that on the one hand it will impact on individual household finances, but on the other hand it will support the funding those people services such as help for older and frailer people, people with disabilities and mental ill health and children and families in need to access services, rather than having to wait and be denied services which if provided in a timely manner and on an early intervention and prevention basis will save money further down stream.

The staffing situation affecting Social Care and Health Care services is at crisis point and needs addressing immediately with levels of remuneration that will attract the right quality and quantity of staff into the system - opting for Option C will provide fee rates to Care Providers to enable them to achieve that goal.

Care should really come from Central Government. However if forced I would choose option A. All my cost are going up and income is not...so sorry

As you should know there are less fires and less usage of fire service which is why they diversify into other jobs such as first responder etc. to try and keep jobs. I would recommend giving them £15 million and the £7 million going to highways.

I vote for Option A.
I would also like to query why you no longer have public forums to answer direct questions about your plans for our money ?

Option A is essential unless others options will result in massive improvement in road quality, otherwise these increases will not be stomached in present circumstances.

There are many things that can be done to improve and save costs in adult social care all legal and approved under the statutory guidance. Before considering precepts may be it would be wise to look at the process and see how they could be streamlined to save money time and resources

See post at : https://haloabletec.blogspot.com/2022/02/saving-resources-time-and-money-in.html
And
https://haloabletec.blogspot.com/2022/04/direct-payments-care-markets-and.html
Promoting and letting people manage there own carecould save substantial amounts of money.

We need social care to move forward and think in fresh ways to deliver the service which is not staff extensive and reduce costs.

It would be better to have more detail on the budgets for people to comment on, and jargon used that perhaps the general public would understand, rather than the term precept. Doesn’t really explain how much it’s going to cost each household taking into account the cost of living crisis.

Option B - the middle one of the 3 evils.