Rutland County Council is urging residents to share their views on the latest draft budget, which contains spending plans and Council Tax proposals for the year 2021/22 before time runs out.

The consultation started on Wednesday 13 January and will run until Friday 29 January, with full details online at: www.rutland.gov.uk/budget.

The Council is continuing to operate under huge financial pressure, resulting from real-terms funding cuts at a time when demand and spending on key services continue to rise.

The latest Local Government Finance Settlement awarded Rutland less government money than it did in 2020/21, contributing to a £2.6million funding gap for the year ahead.

Despite financial pressure and further reductions in funding, Rutland County Council's draft budget proposes a Council Tax increase of just 2.99% - the smallest increase put forward in any of the past five years.

To balance the budget, the Council is proposing to use £2.6m of reserves to bridge its funding gap and balance this year's budget. To put this in context, the Council used just £10,000 of reserves to balance its last budget.

Councillor Gordon Brown, Cabinet Member for Finance at Rutland County Council, said: "Time is running out for our residents to share their views on the latest draft budget, so we are urging everyone to visit our website to share their views.

"This is arguably one of the most important budgets we have produced in many years and the Council is an extremely difficult position due to the lack of central Government funding.

"Obviously, we cannot continue to use reserves to balance our budget, therefore during the next few months Councillors and Officers will review the services that the Council provides to understand how we can reduce costs. "

Rutland County Council's draft budget for 2021/22 confirms that the Council needs to spend £41.5million over the next 12 months to maintain local services for residents. This is the total yearly cost of everything from road maintenance and bin collections to library services, fostering and adoption, bus travel, school transport and care for older people.

Key spending areas within the 2021/22 draft budget include:

â— £13.8million for adult social care services that help people with needs arising from illness, disability, old age or hardship. Services include day care, community care, residential care and adult protection

â— £6.3million for Social Care services that support and protect vulnerable children, young people, their families and young carers. This includes fostering, adoption, residential care and support for children with disabilities

â— £3.2million to pay for the collection of all household and commercial waste. This also includes recycling and disposal of waste, as well as the cost of running Rutland's recycling centres

â— £1.4million to maintain all roads, car parks, footpaths, bridges and street lighting in the County, together with the cost of winter gritting, traffic management and road safety

â— £1.09million for public transport, including subsidising local buses and free travel for residents of pensionable age

â— £2.05million to provide free school transport for children, as well as travel assistance for people with special educational needs and disabilities

â— £1.8million for public protection and the environment, including street cleaning and grounds maintenance services, along with work linked to trading standards, licensing and crime and disorder

In addition to spending plans for the year ahead, the Council's draft budget includes proposals for a Council Tax rise of 1.99%, plus an Adult Social Care Precept of 1% which would be used specifically to help fund adult social care services.

If approved, the average increase in Council Tax for a Band D property in Rutland would be £1.02 per week.