Call to open up city budget decision making to public

THE system used to agree the annual council budget should be reformed, opposition councillors said today.

Councillor Ricky Henderson, finance spokesman for the Labour group, has called for the creation of a new council budget committee in order to improve the level of scrutiny of the budget.

The committee would be made up of councillors and external groups representing civic society, including trade unions, voluntary representatives and possibly church groups.

The Labour group believes the proposals would work better than the existing internal process that sees the whole budget formally set on one day.

Cllr Henderson said: "We welcome the move towards more public consultation, but believe the process can be further improved. If the council is faced with difficult decisions over the next few years we need to be more inclusive in how we set service priorities."