Newcastle City Council launches budget simulator
Newcastle City Council has launched an online budget simulator that lets residents have a say in where cuts should be made to help plug a £30m gap in the budget.
Due to cuts in government grants, increased costs to deliver services and new responsibilities, it means the council has to make further cuts on top of £251m it has saved since 2010.
The budget simulator allows people to submit their own budgets once they’ve found £30m in savings by reducing the budget in each service area.
Every cut is shown with consequences and a breaking news headline which tries to hit home the real life impact of cuts.
The simulator also pools together everyone’s individual budgets to produce ‘The People’s Budget’ and give an overview of all those who took part.