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Following May's local elections, our new leadership is mapping out its priorities for the next four years and now wants to hear your views about what’s most important to you and how council tax should be spent.
This is your first opportunity to tell us what you think about our emerging ideas to make North Somerset an even better place over the next four years.
We’re really keen to hear your views so please get involved.
Our current vision is to be open, fair and green, and we want to know if you think this remains the right focus for our area.
We also want to hear your views on four draft ambitions for North Somerset:
- for our children and young people to feel cared for, safe, supported and given equality of opportunity to thrive
- for our communities to be caring, healthy and safe, where people help each other to live well
- for our towns and villages to be thriving and sustainable places to live, work and visit, and
- for our council to deliver consistently good services and value for money to support an ambitious community.
At the same time, we also want your views on the budgets which will support the delivery of the plan.
Our financial pressures haven’t gone away so it’s really important as we plan our priorities for the next four years, we also look at how we can make best use of limited resources to support our ambitions.
Not everything can be a priority, so we want to find out what you think we should be spending council taxpayers' money on, to help us prioritise public money in the right places.
There are lots of ways to have your say, either online, in-person or virtually.
Fill in the survey online by Monday 16 October. Paper copies are also available in all North Somerset libraries.
A series of in-person events are planned over the coming weeks, hosted by the leader of council Cllr Mike Bell and deputy leader Cllr Catherine Gibbons.
These take place on:
- Wednesday 20 September, from 6.30pm at the Tithe Barn, Nailsea
- Monday 25 September, from 6pm at Weston Museum
- Wednesday 27 September, from 6.30pm, at the Folk Hall, Portishead
- Monday 9 October, from 6.30pm, at Castlewood, Clevedon.
There will also be sessions on mobile libraries across October, stopping at Backwell, Long Ashton, Wrington, Kingston Seymour and Banwell. See the website for details.
If you can’t make it in-person, you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and share your views with our executive members during a virtual Q&A session next Thursday (21 September), at 6pm.
Follow us on Facebook for details.
Once the engagement period ends, the draft plan will be developed before being shared publicly during November for more formal consultation among the local community.
Responses to that consultation will inform the final version of the plan, which will then be presented to councillors in the new year for approval, alongside the annual budget.