Devon Youth Service Budget
We have received a large number of postcards asking about the budget for the youth service for the next two financial years, and would like to thank all the young people who have contributed to this debate by telling us your views.
We have already replied to those of you who included your contact details on the postcards, and we will do our best to keep you up to date with what's happening throughout the budget setting process, and, where possible, we will ask you for your views.
The County Council will have to make some really difficult decisions when it sets its budget for the next financial year.
The Government has given us a set amount of money to spend and in order to support local families we have made the decision not to raise the Council Tax, which is the amount of money residents pay for all their council services.
However because prices have gone up, this means we have even less to spend on services, and on paying staff to provide them.
To help us make these tough choices Councillor John Hart, the leader of Devon County Council, is meeting people in communities around Devon to ask them what they think the money should be spent on, and what they think is most important.
Once this has finished, we will have a clear picture of what Devon's priorities are.
We have just started to set the budget for the next financial year and are talking to managers of services to see where savings can be made. We won't make any final decisions until next February, and any decisions on the following year will go through the same process.
In the meantime we welcome your views and ideas and will continue to look at the best ways to save money whilst protecting the most vital services.
Where there are options for the youth service we will publish bulletins on our website - www.devonyouthservice.org.uk with information about how you can express your views.