Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

How much more money is Jane Scott going to allow to be spent?
Five local people have been chosen to feature in posters that will hopefully promote debate about the £800 million budget of Wiltshire's new unitary council.

In case you have missed it, from 1 April 2009, Wiltshire's four district councils and the county council will merge. In its first year, the council will have a budget of some £800 million and leaders are urging local people to have their say about how the money is spent.

Across Wiltshire, local people will have the chance to tell the council which services are most important to them. Consultation will take place at local events, road shows and on-line.

Jane Scott, Chair of the Implementation Executive for the new council, said, "All of us are challenged by the credit crunch this year. In the same way that households are affected by higher fuel prices our services, such as refuse collection, are becoming more expensive to deliver. We won't receive any more money to cover the cost of these increases, so difficult decisions will have to be made about which services need the most money. We need to find out exactly which services are important to local people so we can share the information with Area Boards". In straight-forward English you can take this to mean - "We will need to cut services to balance the budget. All talk of the unitary authority saving millions of pounds in council tax now seems to be pie-in-the-sky").

The next phase of 'consultation' will take place at seven public meetings, road shows and on-line. The local one for us is on 15 October at the Conference & Development Centre, County Hall, Trowbridge.

It will start at 6.30 pm and finish around 8.30pm. There will be light refreshments from 6pm. To book your place please call Wiltshire County Council's customer care team on 01225 713000 e-mail: customercare@wiltshire.gov.uk