Rising to challenges together

A recent trip to London, reminded me of the importance of democracy and how tough choices need to be made if we are to live in a healthy society. My trip to the capital was to see the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta, which are placed together in the British Library – our “own” copy, the one which normally resides at Salisbury Cathedral, was by far the most splendidly intact.

To see these four relics, in this the 800^th year since Magna Carta was written, really brought home its significance and made me feel rather proud of our national record when it comes to living in a democratic society. Magna Carta marked a watershed for ordinary British subjects and ultimately it sparked our parliamentary democracy and rule of law, but maybe most importantly, it also stands out as the first time the people of this nation had their voices heard.

Our voice has been heard ever since, and that’s just as important today as it was 800 years ago.

As you will know I am proud to promote openness and transparency and local views are both helpful and influential in helping the council to make the tough choices. Over the last few weeks we held a series of public meetings to discuss the challenges we face and to set out our budget proposals, ahead of them being discussed and approved by full council on 24 February. More than 250 people attended these meetings to hear how we plan to save £30 million over the next year, and it was an opportunity to hear people’s views and to answer their questions.

Let me be clear – we weren’t just there to be seen to be listening. We were genuinely listening, and I was impressed with what we heard. Yes, of course there was criticism of the council – we all know you can’t please all of the people all of the time – but there was also truly constructive community energy; a sense that we’re all in this together and people were aware of the financial challenges that we have to address. The majority of people seem to understand the difficult financial situation we’re in. As I explained in my last blog, Wiltshire Council currently spends around £900 million each year on more than 350 services. Changing demographics, such as people living longer coupled with inflation and further severe cuts in funding from central government means we have to find more savings.

The Budget presentation and details of the Budget Q&A are available online for those who couldn’t make it to one of the events, but may be interested in finding out more.

We have identified more than 100 areas where savings can be made and we want to do what’s best for the people of Wiltshire, and we recognise that to suggest an increase on council tax – whilst acceptable to some – would put huge pressure on many households.

One of the criticisms raised at the meetings is our proposal to charge for garden waste.  We have resisted bringing in a charge until now, despite many other authorities having gone down this route. It is unfortunate that we need to propose charging for this service; particularly after we asked people about changes to garden waste collections last year, and charging was not their preferred option. The reality is that we now know the budget situation is more challenging than when we carried out the consultation.  I have publically apologised to everyone who took the time to respond to the consultation and I’m genuinely sorry that the preferred option – to only collect in the summer months - is no longer viable.

But it’s not all been doom and gloom  - a Growth Deal package of Government money of £11.5m has been unveiled for Wiltshire - which will fund improvements to the busy Yarnbrook junction near Trowbridge and encourage innovative start-up businesses as part of the Digital Corsham project. This funding is in addition to the £129.3 million committed by the Government on 7 July 2014.
 

Over the lifetime of this new deal (2016-2021) the Local Enterprise Partnership estimates that up to 2,500 new jobs could be created and 2,100 new homes built.  The new commitments in this deal also have the potential to generate up to £80 million public and private investment.

So looking on the bright side – those “green shoots” that television reporters like to talk about - are pushing through in our county.

This takes me back to the thoughts that I had when I stood before those extraordinary 800-year-old documents in the British Library. Confronting a medieval king and demanding greater rights can’t have been easy for the barons in 1215. But having a voice and speaking out, particularly at times when tough choices need to be made can result in our proudest moments.

 You can find out more about Magna Carta 800-themed events here in Wiltshire at www.visitwiltshire.co.uk or explore the subject further by downloading a copy of the Magna Carta 800 trails leaflet