Northumberland Town and parish councils put in impossible budget situation

Northumberland Town and parish councils put in impossible budget situation

I understand that town and parish councils in our county have been told about changes to the county council’s environmental budget which will affect the people they serve. And, what’s worse, they’ve been told this after setting their own budgets.

So here’s the impossible situation our town and parish councils have been put in. They’ve met in good faith, prioritised and allocated their own budgets, only to discover that the county council has moved the goalposts and decided to reduce the frequency of hedge cutting, grass edging and shrub maintenance to contribute to the £4m of cuts they are proposing to make to local services.

There’s also a question over Christmas lights and what support the county council will be able to give to parish and town councils to put up lights and stage the switch-ons, which so many of our residents look forward to.

The county council appears to have little regard for our parish and town councils which work hard to maintain and improve their local areas. Our parish and town councils meet and plan for the future but it seems the county council, not content with coming in at the eleventh hour, waltz in after midnight and say they’ve changed their plans. This is not how we should be doing business in Northumberland.

At the very least the county council needs to delay these proposed changes to give our parish and town council a chance to respond, and open up a proper and respectful dialogue with them. It’s the very least a civilised organisation can do.