Continued cuts in government grants, additional unfunded pressures and ever-increasing demands for services have left North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor and Cabinet in an extremely tough position to prepare a balanced budget. North Tyneside Council continues to be faced with having to maximise the use of dwindling resources to invest in the borough and ensure it continues to grow, while protecting and delivering essential services – with particular strain being felt in social care. Elected Mayor Norma Redfearn CBE said: “Like many local authorities we continue to be faced with cuts to our grant from government as well as increased costs, including for adults’ and children’s services. “Demand for services, including many of those that residents tell me are important to them, also keeps rising, particularly in social care where the government still hasn’t come up with an answer and is months late with its promised Green Paper. “And, despite extensive lobbying to try and increase local government funding there was no improvement to the position previously announced in the autumn budget. “This has left my Cabinet and I facing some really difficult decisions, which we are required to make, and we have tried to protect services for the vulnerable while delivering our commitments in the ‘Our North Tyneside Plan’. “This gets tougher every year and there doesn’t appear to be any let-up in the relentless pressure we face to save money, which only makes to harder and harder to plan for the next few years. “Despite these challenges we remain committed to achieving our priorities, making a difference to residents by being a council that works smarter, continues to put residents at the heart of what we do and ensure we use public money wisely to deliver what is important to people – things like economic success and creating jobs.” Cabinet last night (Monday 21 January) agreed a draft budget setting out savings proposals of more than £3.5m for 2019/20 and nearly £27.2m over the next four years. The draft proposals include an increase in North Tyneside Council’s part of the council tax, which continues to be in line with government assumptions, of 2.99 per cent in 2019/20. This is equivalent to an annual rise of £30.45 for a Band A property and £45.68 for a Band D. Since November 2018, regular face-to-face sessions have been held with groups of residents to engage on the budget proposals and a questionnaire has been made available online and in hard copy in Customer First Centres. The Elected Mayor continued: “Even though we are faced with these unrelenting pressures we have prioritised what residents have told us is important to them. We’ve kept libraries and leisure centres open and we continue to invest in our environment and businesses through careful management of our resources.” She added: “We have met with local residents throughout this process to explain the challenges we face and they have supported the choices we’re putting forward. I would like to thank everyone who took part in our budget engagement - we have listened and taken on board the feedback and will use this to form part of our final budget proposals later in the year.” Full Council will consider the 2019/20 budget at its meeting next month (February). ENDS