As the Burnham Government prepares its first Budget, we're preparing for our last.
Setting a budget is already a challenge for rural districts like my own in the wake of the fair funding settlement, which redistributes funding to more deprived urban areas and makes little allowance for rural deprivation and service delivery costs. This is compounded by the need to both fund and implement local government reorganisation (LGR), while continuing to provide good services for our communities and deliver council priorities ahead of next May's elections.
