Changing Essex County Council to meet the needs of a changing Essex

In these times of economic hardship, everyone has to tighten their belts – most households have felt the pinch in some way or another, few private companies haven't been affected, and the public sector is being called on to provide the same or better services – for less funding.

But Essex County Council has always carefully scrutinised what it spends for one very good reason – it's your money.

Continuing its economy drive, ECC has announced plans to make over £300 million of savings by 2012. That's a huge sum, in fact, it's the largest ever savings target in local government history. As the population ages and the country experiences restrictions in public spend because of a number of factors – including recession – the whole public sector, including ECC, faces a rising demand for its services. It is forecast that we'll need to spend over £300 million extra every year. But we won't get any more funding from government. So, we need to act now to fund the growing demand for services by making over £300 million worth of savings from elsewhere – diverting resources from elsewhere in ECC to front-line services where it's really needed.

But we're not only motivated by making savings – we're motivated by you. Everything we're doing aims to put you first, and to meet your needs and requirements. The July edition of EssexWorks (available here and being distributed across Essex from July 19) sets out why Essex County Council needs to change and gives examples of some of the ways we will make this change happen. It also explains how we intend to achieve our savings target whilst maintaining the services that you – the resident – want and need.

Cllr Martin
Leader, Essex County Council

Your Essex – your budget
Tell us what your priorities are! As balancing budgets becomes increasingly difficult, we want you to tell us where you think money should be spent. Click on the following link to have your say:

Your Essex - your budget survey 2010
Click here to view Cllr Peter Martin's blog.
Click here to access the budget maker and have a go at calculating how you would spend the budget