THAT time of the year is upon us once again and doesn’t it seem to come around quicker each year?

No I don’t mean the lead-up to Christmas; I am referring to the council’s annual budget process, which, as usual, provides very little in the way of festive cheer.

Last week the council’s new chief executive Aubrey Fawcett launched our latest budget consultation to find out the views of local residents on how the council could make savings of the order of £22.5 million over the next three years in response to anticipated government funding cuts, inflationary pressures and increasing demand for services.

The cross-party Members’ Budget Working Group has already agreed to plug the gap for the next financial year —currently estimated at £2.8m – through the use of reserves and, possibly, a small council tax increase of up to three per cent for all council taxpayers, not just those in the higher banded properties affected by the Scottish Government’s recent council tax reforms.

The actual level of the funding gap should be known on 15 December when the Finance Secretary Derek Mackay announces the Scottish Government’s draft budget.

The noises coming out of government suggest that the cut in local authorities’ funding could, like last year, be significantly more than councils have been anticipating.

The local government trades unions UNISON, Unite and GMB are organising a lobby of the Scottish Parliament on 15 December to try to persuade the government and opposition parties to use the parliament’s tax powers to protect council services and jobs. 

You can lend your support to the unions’ campaign by contacting the Finance Secretary. His email address is Derek.Mackay.msp@parliament.scot

The responses to the council’s budget consultation will inform decisions to be taken by the current Council in February and, probably more importantly, by the new council elected in May for future years’ budgets.

You can find out more information on the budget consultation on the council’s website at www.inverclyde.gov.uk/yoursay and in the forthcoming issue of the council’s InView newspaper. 

You can complete the online budget survey by visiting www.surveymonkey.co.uk/rydecouncilbudgetconsultation.

It is important that as many residents as possible complete the survey so that the responses are representative of the views of the local community. The responses we receive will inform the decisions that councillors take.

We want to know which services are important to you; which services you are prepared to do without; which services we should charge more for; and how much extra you would be willing to pay in council tax to protect services.

The consultation runs until 9 January 2017.

It is your council and your services. Please take the opportunity to have your say.