SIMALTO

The SIMALTO method (Simultaneous Multi Attribute Level Trade Off) is a budget policy modelling system used by many local authorities across the country and was put together for us as a special exercise to assist the Council to make these difficult decisions with your help.

We set out different service standards and we ask panellists to choose where they would allocate the money. The questions were designed to form a logical path and not to require detailed financial knowledge. Experience from previous consultation exercises shows that those taking part genuinely consider both the financial and social impacts of their choices.

Panellists identified which reductions in service, or increases in revenues and charges, would cause least discontent among residents, and the top four were:

• Improving the Guildhall and using it as a café (i.e. raising revenue from it)
• Reducing our resident’s magazine: “City Life”, to one per year
• Merge the Museum Service with that of the County Council
• Increasing car parking charges by 10p

They also told us which services should not be reduced and they included:

• Arts and culture;
• Closed Circuit TV;
• Riverside litter collection and enhancement;
• Flood defences;

They then identified improvements in current service benefits that would meet most with their approval. The following enhancements had the most support:

• Contributing towards making the Hylton Road flood defences permanent.
• Dedicated weekend litter service for the riverside
• Extending the enhancements to the riverside to include City Bridge to Sabrina Bridge/racecourse section
• Increasing the level of financial support for the homelessness service.

A specific question concerning views on options to improve household waste collection gave continuing as now, alternating general waste one week and recyclables the next, as the most popular (79%).

Finally, the panellists decided on the mix of detailed changes that created the most satisfaction. It considered, not only the results of the survey but also the associated impact on the amount of Council Tax residents would have to pay, statutory commitments and budget limit represented by the Council’s current financial position.

In conclusion, the exercise has been very helpful for the City Council to feed into the difficult budgetary decisions it had to make for the current year. Your opinions were considered alongside the constraints of the challenging financial settlement from the government, the increased expectations and statutory duties on us, the rising costs of providing services, and the growing demands on Worcester as a busy and thriving sub regional centre. All this contributed to the decision on the budget that was announced at the end of January.

For a full report on the SIMALTO exercise click here

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