Greens call for engagement, transparency and fairness in setting next council budget

Budget motion to Policy & Resources Committee on Thursday 11th June

Green councillors have called on the Labour-run city council to continue the open and inclusive consultation process which they championed during the last four years. A motion to this Thursday’s Policy & Resources committee calls on the administration to “make all efforts to engage city residents, businesses and the third sector in budget development … and to publish detailed budget proposals including Equality Impact Assessments by December 2015.”

Green finance lead, Cllr. Ollie Sykes, who is proposing the motion, said:

“While in administration we greatly increased the transparency of the council’s budget-setting process. A key step was to publish detailed proposals more than two months before Budget Council, when previous administrations had provided much less time for public scrutiny. With a further £20million in cuts expected next year, it is more important than ever that residents of our city are able to engage in a frank and open budget-setting process. We urge Labour not to reduce access to information about the budget as it is developed.”

He added:

“We know that cuts can hit some people much more severely than others, so to help minimise this we are also calling for the continuation of full Equality Impact Assessments as part of budget development. This will help the council to avoid exacerbating existing inequalities.”


Notes

The Policy & Resources Committee will be held at the Brighthelm Centre in the Auditorium, from 4pm. The Notice of Motion is Agenda Item 7,d,i.

 

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