South Ayrshire Council insists it really does want to hear residents’ thoughts on its budget plans.
Last year, the council decided against holding a formal public consultation on its 2022/23 budget, a change from years of engagement with local people.
The council posted two short videos on the council website outlining what the budget was and, while it wouldn’t directly consult on the 2022/23 budget, the council promised to engage residents on plans for medium to long term proposals.
This consultation ultimately never emerged and, in May, the Labour/SNP administration was replaced by the Conservatives.
Now, despite South Ayrshire Council’s new budget video being almost exactly the same as it was 12 months ago, the council insist there will be public consultation this time around.
The assurance comes ahead of some of the biggest financial challenges South Ayrshire Council has had to face, with inflation, cost of living, Brexit and the pandemic forcing councillors to look at some difficult choices.
Conservative council leader, councillor Martin Dowey, was extremely critical of the lack of consultation last year and insisted that, while no details were in place, there would be consultation.
The new South Ayrshire Council budget video states: “It will be late December before we’ll know what our block grant from the Scottish Government will be for 2023/24.
“By January 2023 we’ll have a clearer understanding of what this means to the council. We will then let you know how local communities can get involved in how we target our resources going forward.”
Prior to last year’s budget, South Ayrshire Council had undertaken significant engagement on how it spent its cash.
In 2021, a video and survey were published, with eight questions on the council’s budget plans, running for six weeks.
A comprehensive survey and analysis was produced in the first year of the current administration in 2017/18.
That ran for four weeks until February 11, 2018 and received 2,793 responses, compared to 611 in 2021.
The 2017/18 consultation included a 92- page report and analysis of responses to a 68-question survey on a number of specific services and issues.
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