Budget consultation 2024/25
We are in the process of reviewing the council budget for 2024/25 and we are asking residents and businesses for their views on Cotswold District Council’s spending priorities.
Following many years of reduced government funding, and now significantly increased costs, the council is facing a three-year challenge to balance the books. You can read more about the council’s financial challenge here: Council faced with three-year challenge to avoid going bankrupt.
The council is in a relatively sound financial position currently due to decisions in the last few years to raise charges and make services more efficient. We want to be upfront with residents that if we don’t take tough decisions over the next couple of years, we risk ending up like other councils - declaring effective bankruptcy and then seeing big tax rises, huge hikes in charges and services shutting down.
We have published our proposals for this year that could reduce our costs by £1.5 million which would make a big difference and will help us to protect the services our residents and communities rely on. Last year, we were able to freeze car parking charges to help residents and visitors with the cost of living, but we can’t afford to continue that freeze next year.
Making these difficult decisions early will help us avoid making much tougher decisions in future and facing the harsh changes we have seen at councils that have lost control of their finances.
We would like your views on our proposals. The budget consultation will run from Friday 3 November to Friday 8 December 2023.
Have your say
Budget facts:
- We use our budget to provide over 50 local services including waste collections, leisure facilities, fly-tipping collection and enforcement, tourism services and car parks among others. We do not provide services such as road maintenance, libraries, adult social care or public health which are run by the county council.
- Over all, we receive less than 10% of the Council Tax you pay. The rest goes to the county council, police, parish councils and fire service.