Your questions answered at Derbyshire Dales area forums

Area community forum’s will be held at Matlock Town Hall, on Monday, February 9, and Bakewell Agricultural Business Centre on Monday, February 16.

During the forums, Derbyshire Dales District Council will give feedback on a recent budget consultation and what its share of local Council Tax is likely to be from April.

Derbyshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Charles will be on hand alongside Chief Superintendent Karl Smethem to answer questions on the choices faced by Derbyshire police, as well as the potential closure of police stations, including Bakewell.

There will also be presentations on how to become a councillor and a new credit union due to be launched in the Derbyshire Dales soon.

Council leader Councillor Lewis Rose said: “We will be setting our share of Council Tax for 2015/16 in March and these forums will analyse the main areas of our revenue budget and capital programme and the difficult challenges we continue to face.

“A further 13.78 per cent cut in the settlement funding we receive from central government in the coming year, on top of a near £500,000 grant cut in the current year and grant reductions of around 16 per cent in the previous two years, mean we have no choice but to continue to review all our services to explore yet more savings and efficiencies.

“We have to make further savings in the region of £1million a year by 2019/20 and in the meantime we will work hard to protect, wherever possible, the key services we provide for the people of the Derbyshire Dales.”

All the meetings start at 7pm and anyone who can’t attend in person can email questions in advance to [email protected] or via council’s Facebook and Twitter pages @derbyshiredales. The Matlock forum will also feature a live Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/derbyshiredales

For more, call 01629 761302 or email community [email protected]