Householders, businesses and communities are being invited to a consultation after the council announced its new budget will require £1.5 million in savings.

A spokesperson for Cherwell District Council said: “Like other councils up and down the country, Cherwell District Council faces significant financial pressures driven by rising costs, particularly in energy, fuel and materials.

“These inflationary impacts highlight the need for savings or more income, all while ensuring the council maintains essential, high-quality services.”

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They shared that the budget for 2024 to 2025 will require £1.5 million in savings, and claimed the council has explored internal efficiencies and cost-reduction strategies.

Efforts reportedly include maximising in-house expertise for projects, securing additional grant contributions, using digital technology to streamline processes, and achieving better value from its contracts and suppliers, such as switching insurance providers.

These “efficiencies” will allegedly contribute £1.2 million of savings next year and take the council a long way to bridging the budget gap.

The council has pulled together draft proposals to find the additional £300,000 of savings and income required to balance the budget.

Householders are asked to review the proposals and provide feedback at cherwell.citizenspace.com.

The consultation runs until Friday, December 22, 2023.

Councillor Barry Wood, leader of Cherwell District Council, said: "In these challenging financial times, maintaining our financial prudence and commitment to being a well-run, fiscally responsible council is more important than ever.

“We are dedicated to finding solutions that protect the services our residents value while navigating through these budgetary constraints impacted so significantly by the national economic picture and inflationary pressures that are seeing substantial increases to our costs.

"We recognise the importance of community input in these decisions, which is why we call for people to share their views during this budget consultation.”

Householder feedback will help shape budget deliberations scheduled for the council’s Executive on February 5, 2024. The final budget decision is planned at a full council meeting on February 26, 2024.

For further details and to participate in the consultation, visit cherwell.citizenspace.com.

In September The Guardian reported on a financial rating agency’s publication which listed Cherwell District Council in the top 10 councils in England for high levels of debt for their size.

The report, published by Moody’s, a leading credit rating agency, named the top 20 local authorities who have high debt levels by finding out how much councils had borrowed relative to their spending power, housing revenue account income and total borrowing.

The council came eighth on the list, with a total borrowing of £188 million and a borrowing to income ration of 10.3.

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1