Hundreds of residents 'play chancellor' and reveal how they'd balance council books

Hundreds of residents are having their say on budget cuts in Adur and Worthing, it has been revealed.

The council says that the response so far ha already exceeded all expectation as completed forms hae been flooding in.

Ian Lowrie, Chief Executive of Adur and Worthing Councils, said: “Previous consultations of this type have usually attracted at most a few hundred comments, but this looks as if it is heading for ten times that number or even more.”  

Residents are suggesting ways of balancing the books and are giving some really positive suggestions about how to do it.

Some people have gone further and given more than a response to our questions which will be analysed together with the forms sent in to give councillors a good idea of how the public view the future in this challenging financial climate.

The council has said that one correspondent even wrote in as Mr G Brown at the House of Commons, claiming that he would like to help as he has been at a bit of a loose end recently.  And despite the humorous nature of the letter the council said that it did make a number of useful suggestions.

Worthing Council Leader, Paul Yallop, encouraged even more people to have their say. He said:  “We need as many ideas as possible to help us know what local people think about the difficult choices we face over the next few years, so please respond and give us the widest possible spread of views to help the budget process.”

Adur Council Leader, Neil Parkin, concluded: “The deadline for comments is still some weeks off on 16 October, so there is still time to let us have your views.  We know it is not pleasant to be asked where we think we could manage with less or pay for things we have not paid for before, but the simple truth is that we will have little choice once the government has given its budget on 20 October so we want to be ready.  So please help.”

A Facebook page for each council has been set up for those that want to join in the debate.  Just search for ‘your chance to be the chancellor’ for either Adur or Worthing and have your say.