Rutland residents raise tax concerns ahead of council's budget proposals
The budget consultation period for the public closes on Wednesday
It's the last chance for the public to give their thoughts on Rutland County Council's budget for 2022/23, before the consultation period closes on Wednesday 9th.
£42.3 million has been set aside to improve areas of the county, with the drafted budget currently allocating £14 million to adult social care services.
£6m is also going towards child care services, while waste services in Rutland are set to receive £3.3m.
Finance portfolio holder for Rutland County Council, Karen Payne, says members of the public and Rutland County Council share the same concern:
"In terms of their big concerns about the budget, the biggest issue really is the disparity in the government grant awards to Rutland. By that I mean, in Rutland, 80% of the council's revenue comes from council tax.
"In other unitary councils that perform the same sort of functions as Rutland - it's only 60% of the revenue that comes from council tax, so there's a big gap between us and the other unitary councils.
"Obviously that's something we're very unhappy about, and our residents are unhappy about that too. We're not sitting on our hands, we're actually working quite closely with our MP, who's raising the issue and our voice within the Government.
"We are making a lot of noise about it in the right places - the leader of the council, chief executive and myself are pushing really hard on this, as is our MP, and that's really the biggest issue that the resident's have raised so far."