Consultation exercise to help shape DDC budget

Residents across the Dover district are to get a say on spending priorities for 2014/15 and beyond in a major budget consultation exercise being undertaken by Dover District Council. The SIMALTO research project will help the council to better understand residents' priorities and will contribute to the decision making process.

SIMALTO is widely used by local authorities to help them in the decision making process by collecting and analysing the responses of residents. It is particularly useful in that it involves residents making "trade offs" between various options on the level of services they would like to see and what effect this has on the budget.

As part of the research, 250 residents will be randomly selected for face-to-face interviews. In addition, residents across the district can go online at www.dover.gov.uk from Monday 26 August and rank their own spending priorities for a selection of 17 council services, from enforcement to street cleansing. Just like the council, they will have to make sure they don't overspend the budget!

Cllr Paul Watkins, Leader of Dover District Council, said: "With continued pressure on local government finance and further savings to be made across many areas of council spending, this is a really interesting opportunity for residents to get involved in shaping council services. By taking part in this important research they will be helping to influence the priorities for council spending in the future."