DENBIGHSHIRE residents have just one day to respond to a survey on how public services should be run by their council, amid expectations of a budget shortfall and further cuts.

Denbighshire County Council says it plans to “reshape” its budget for the 2020-21 financial year, which will set out its spending in areas such as education, social care, road maintenance, bin collection, council housing, public libraries and planning.

The Welsh Government’s Revenue Support Grant funds local authorities in Wales, while county councils can set their own council tax level to raise additional funds.

The council caused anger in its 2019-20 budget after it raised council tax by 6.35 per cent, which it attributed to a lack of central government funding. More recently it made the controversial decision to cut free swim sessions for over 60s.

The council has launched a questionnaire to get input from members of the public ahead of its upcoming review, which it said will involve “carefully managing” its spending to avoid a further rise in taxes.

“Over 72 per cent of the council’s net revenue expenditure comes from Welsh Government’s Revenue Support Grant, but the amount that the council is given each year is not enough to meet the rising costs of delivering services,” a council spokesperson said.

“So far, the council has managed to protect services by carefully managing them and this has allowed us to keep council tax raises to a minimum. If we were to only use council tax payments to cover all of our budget shortfall at the start of 2019-20, we would have needed to raise council tax by over 20 per cent.

“We are expecting to continue to receive less money from the Welsh Government every year, and we will soon be working out how we will manage our budget for the year 2020-2021.”

The council wants to hear residents’ opinions on which services matter most to them, which are the best value for money, and ways they can be sustained or improved.

The consultation ends on October 4.

For more information and to take part, visit the questionnaire page or call 01824 706000.