A six week consultation on Torbay Council's draft proposals for service change, income generation and savings in 2016/17 comes to a end on Friday 18 December.

Two additional questions have also been added to the consultation and the deadline for online feedback for these proposals will be extended until  Monday 4 January.

The council has already made savings of £50 million in the last five years and along with other local authorities, is in the process of identifying further savings reductions estimated at £32.4 million over the next three years, including £12.4 million in 2016/17.

With ever decreasing levels of local government finance support and increasing costs and demands on services, Torbay Council faces tough choices.

The council is committed to retaining as many services as possible that the public value alongside those it has to provide by law and that is why it is encouraging people to give their views on the budget proposals for the next financial year.

The proposals include two new questions. The first asks members of the public if they support centralising the Connections service in Paignton Library and Information Centre to save £76,000.

The second question concerns the proposal to raise Council Tax by up to 2% to generate new funding to spend exclusively on Adult Social Care as announced by the Government in its recent Spending Review and Autumn Statement. This would be in addition to the existing budget proposal to increase Council Tax by 1.99%

Details about the council’s draft budget and draft proposals are available at www.torbay.gov.uk/budget2016-17.

The consultation questionnaire can be found at www.torbay.gov.uk/consultation and paper copies are in all Torbay Libraries, Connections and Harbour offices.

The deadline for completed questionnaires is Friday 18 December 2015, but views on the two additional questions can be submitted before the extended deadline of Monday 4 January 2016.

Views gathered through this consultation will help to inform the final proposals and a formal decision will be made by the Council in February 2016, when it will also agree its budget for 2016/2017 and the Council Tax requirement.