Would you pay more council tax to protect frontline services?
Council leader Margaret Davidson
Many Highland residents would be willing to pay a little bit more council tax to protect frontline services, according to a new council poll.
Highland Council held its first in a series of Facebook chats on budget issues on Tuesday (October 27).
Council leader Margaret Davidson, chair of the resources committee Bill Fernie and director of finance Derek Yule all took part in the event which focussed on council tax.
Around 300 users on the social media site viewed the chat, with around 150 comments being made.
Overall, the post reached more than 5,000 people and engaged 51 people.
A poll on the page asked, ‘The council has to save around six per cent across all services next year. Would you be willing to pay a bit more council tax to protect some services against cuts e.g. education, care, roads, voluntary groups etc.?’
To date, 128 people have responded to the question, with 60 people (46.87 per cent) saying they would be willing to pay more council tax, 47 (36.72 per cent) that they would not and 21 (16.41 per cent) that they did not know and needed more information.
Many of the questions asked during the session related to where the council could make savings and many people expressed a concern for frontline services such as winter maintenance.
Councillor Davidson said: "Social media is a valuable tool for reaching out and engaging directly with people in our communities. We know that the vast majority of our 10,000 Facebook followers are based in the Highlands and this is an easy and convenient way for a great many people to take part in discussions about services.
"We have committed to making budget decisions in an open, transparent and fair manner. It was very valuable to hear a varied range of opinions and ideas and what people really think and I really enjoyed chatting to people in this way."
Information on the council tax can be found at www.highland.gov.uk/info/701/council_tax.
The second Facebook chat session in the series, a discussion on community services, will take place on Tuesday, November 3, between 5.30-6.30pm.
