Central Bedfordshire Council is holding a consultation to seek people's views on their draft budget for 2022. The consultation can be accessed here.
Richard Fuller, MP for North East Bedfordshire, said:
I encourage my constituents in Central Bedfordshire to visit the Central Beds Council website to view the draft budget for 2022 and have their say in the consultation before it closes at the end of this month.
Next year the Council anticipates spending some £468 million on a full range of services whilst continuing to focus on efficiency with £9.6 million of efficiency proposals planned.
CBC faces increases in demands, particularly in providing care for more older people and adults with disabilities, providing more support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and children who need protection.
To bridge the gap between the Council's planned spend and anticipated income, they propose to:
- apply the Adult Social Care Precept of a 1% increase on council tax to contribute towards funding care services, and
- increase council tax by 0.95% for funding other services.
Additionally, the consultation will highlight proposals for a further £240 million of capital investments, including schools (including £9 million on specialist school places for SEND), roads, care homes, leisure provision and other infrastructure projects.
The consultation is available online until 31 January 2022 and full details of the proposed budget can be found here.