Leader's blog - Friday 2 February

Highlights

• Our budget will be considered by Council in February

• Pride in Gateshead will take place in August and will be a programme of free events to celebrate inclusivity and diversity within the borough

• Elections will take place in May - to be able to take part you must be registered to vote

Transcript

Thank you for listening to this broadcast.

As we move into 2024, clearly there are a number of challenges going forward for both the council and for Gateshead. First and foremost we face the prospect of having to set a budget for the coming year. We have already received from Government the announcement of how much we will receive from Central Government, we have to set a council tax level and we have to set a budget for next year. They are challenging circumstances, the resources available to the council, as always, are reducing, and the demands for services, the needs in Gateshead, are increasing. So it's real pressures on the council in terms of delivering that budget. We've carried out public consultation on the major issues that impact directly on peoples services and we have listened carefully to what people have said and we will seek to try to establish a budget that satisfies the demands of Gateshead to try and improve Gateshead to make it a better place to live and work in.

As always we are here, we are very keen to hear peoples views about the services We carry out events throughout the year for people to have the opportunity to have their say in how they believe Gateshead could be improved. Please participate in all of those events.

Second point to highlight, we're working closely with community organisations and local charities organisations to establish a Pride festival in Gateshead. That'll take place later this year in August - it will be a range of events in Saltwell Park and across Gateshead to celebrate the diversity of Gateshead. We're proud in Gateshead of our inclusivity - we celebrate everybody within our community and we want to make that statement. Pride is something which should take place all the time, we should always be inclusive, but the establishment of an annual festival is an opportunity to highlight that and to highlight the inclusivity of Gateshead. So that will take place in August this year.

Final point, to really quickly cover is, 2024 is an incredibly important year in terms of elections. There will be a number of elections in May this year - there will be elections for the Police and Crime Commissioner, elections for Gateshead Council and maybe even other elections. The important point is voting is every residents opportunity to have their say about how they want Gateshead to be represented and how they want Gateshead to be ran. It's important that if you want to take that opportunity to register your view, you have to be registered as an elector. It's incredibly important, we take that responsibility very seriously, and we'd ask you to register to vote, participate in the elections and take your opportunity to let us know what you think.