Perth and Kinross residents are being urged to have their say on what the council needs to spend on and to cut as councillors prepare to “make difficult decisions” due to an impending multi-million pound funding gap.
The council has launched an online survey backed by a series of public engagement sessions and conversations with community groups to gather feedback on what the people of Perth and Kinross believe are the most important issues facing the area.
These will run until late November, with the feedback being used to inform the final corporate plan document for the council in December and budget decisions in February 2023.
It comes just weeks after Perth and Kinross Council’s finance chief Stewart Mackenzie told councillors the local authority is facing a massive £30 million funding gap.
The Medium-Term Financial Plan 2023–29 was presented at a full council meeting on Wednesday, September 28.
The plan outlines how PKC looks to manage its finances over the coming years and highlighted how Covid, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Brexit and a global energy crisis were all impacting the UK economy and the public purse.
An optimistic forecast predicts a £17.4 million reduction between PKC’s forecast expenditure in 2023/24 and PKC ’s estimated funding.
The mid-range forecast is £30 million and the pessimistic prediction is a whopping £42.1 million reduction.
In an attempt to quell the risk of wasting funds, council leader councillor Grant Laing led the call for local input.
He said: “I know that corporate plans can seem like dry documents, something which doesn’t mean much to the average resident.
“But this corporate plan is important. It is real.
“The final version will be what officers turn to, to provide the rationale for every proposal they bring to councillors.
“It will be what we as councillors turn to every time we consider whether a decision is in keeping with where we have promised the people of Perth and Kinross we will focus our attention.
“In its simplest terms, if it’s not a priority identified in the corporate plan, then it’s not something we will invest time, energy and money into, beyond maintaining our statutory obligations.”
The survey and engagements sessions will ask residents whether the draft vision and priorities contained with the council make sense as the key things which it should be focussing on over the next five years.
The seven draft priorities are:
• To tackle poverty
• To tackle climate change and support sustainable places
• To grow a sustainable and inclusive local economy
• To enable our children and young people to achieve their full potential
• To protect and care for our most vulnerable
• To support and promote physical and mental wellbeing
• To place communities at the heart of how we work
At the same time as commenting on the draft corporate plan, residents are also being invited to show how they would balance the council’s budget to offset the increasing costs everyone is facing within a limited budget.
Face-to-face engagement sessions are being held from 1-3pm on the following days: October 25 at North Inch Community Campus, Perth; October 26 at Loch Leven Community Campus, Kinross; October 27 at Atholl Centre, Pitlochry; November 1 at Strathearn Community Campus, Crieff; November 2 at North Inch Community Campus, Perth; November 7 at Blairgowrie Community Campus, Perth; November 11 at Aytoun Hall, Auchterarder.
Cllr Laing explained: “We are committed to serving the people and communities of Perth and Kinross and delivering the best possible services that we can within the resources we have.
“Like anyone trying to balance a budget just now that means having to cut our cloth accordingly and making difficult decisions about where we cut back spending.
“To help councillors make those decisions we’re looking for residents to tell us about what is most important to them and their communities, and where they are most willing to accept reductions.
“These service reductions could come in the form of stopping doing some things, reducing the standard or frequency of what we do, or offsetting costs through charging. “None of this is going to be easy, but by working together, listening to residents and looking critically at what the council does and how we do it, we can focus our collective attention on the people most in need to ensure that Perth and Kinross is an area where everyone can live life well, free from poverty and inequality.”
The survey is available at https://bit.ly/3gaZaRP. It runs until November 20.
