What are your priorities for council spending? Consultation deadline 20 September

Residents across Dover District are being reminded they can have their say on spending priorities for 2014/15 and beyond in a major budget consultation exercise being undertaken by Dover District Council - and the closing date is 20 September.

The research will help the council to better understand residents' priorities and will contribute to the decision making process.

SIMALTO (Simultaneous Multi Attribute Level Trade-Off) 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 are being randomly selected for face-to-face interviews. In addition, residents across the district can go online and rank their own spending priorities for a selection of 17 council services. Just like the council, they will have to make sure they don't overspend the budget.

For more information or to have your say, see the DDC website at www.dover.gov.uk.