Residents have their say at Sutton consultation

The council’s newly formed locality team saw a steady stream of people with ideas on anti-social behaviour, regenerating town centres, streets and parks, increasing employment and affordable and safe housing. at the Rumbles cafe on Sutton Lawn this week,

But Sutton West councillor Ray Buttery said: “I don’t know where the money is gong to come from to implement a lot of these suggestions. The council has to save £1 million this year and £2 million the next. Each councillor has £900 to spend but you can’t do much with that.

“Next year Ashfield will have two more councillors which will cost an extra £18,000. We need to reduce charges and put more into the community.

“It is usually community organisations that go to these events. When they put forward suggestions they usually have to apply for grants themselves anyway. If they want good parks for instance, how much is that going to cost? Charnwood Street rec would cost about £50,000 to do properly.”

A council spokesman said: “Where practical we will deploy our existing resources to deliver; through our locality and empowerment team we will work with the voluntary, third sector and partner organisations to equip and empower them to deliver - it is not all about the LA doing everything. Similarly the team is well equipped to seek external funding sources. Obviously money is tight but we have an excellent track record, for example in our parks, of chasing and establishing existing funding to enhance the environment.

“Increasingly what we do deliver will be determined locally. We have kicked off this process with the recent consultation events which we have held across the district.”