Change is coming. My administration is hard at work on the budget process for next year.

In recent years this has become a vital part of the council calendar.

Due to increased pressures on our services and thanks to government inactivity and failures resulting in an ever decreasing pot of money, it has not been a pleasant process to go through. Nor have the effects of the budget been easy for our staff and residents

However we aim to commence the process of changing the council’s financial position.

The last few years have seen a process of managing decline, trying to do what is necessary with ever reducing funds and mistakenly describing the process as savings rather than stating the reality of it being an ongoing process of cuts.

Time for change!

We aim to reinvigorate the council and start to develop a financial strategy built on growth, rather than cuts.

If we fail to do this then key services that support our residents, our Island and our community, will either cease or cease to be adequate for the need and demand that is there.

However we can’t achieve this in one single step. Any large vehicle has to put the brakes on first and then, when it is under control, you can change direction.

Much of what we want to do is limited by what we inherited from the previous administration. That previous council set budgets that have tied our hands for the coming year.

So, this year we aim to put the brakes on the process of cuts and decline. Due to what we have inherited we have still had to identify savings and do so with our hands tied to some extent.

Nevertheless, we will do this in the least damaging way possible and we will aim to protect whatever we possibly can. This will mean that in the next year we can plan and start to turn the wheel and implement the change of direction we need.

We will work on innovative ways of generating money to help fund vital services and thereby offset the financial impact of the ongoing lack of assistance from and continuing cuts to our funding by central government.

This is my last column in the County Press for 2021. In closing I would like to thank all those who have sent me kind messages and good wishes when I felt the need to take a few days off.

The time was valuable and I was able to do a lot of thinking and planning about the way we need to go forward.

I therefore wish you laughter and happiness for the festive season and good health and prosperity for the new year and hope that we can look forward to 2022 with purpose and positivity. Good things will happen.