We're all in it together!

We all hate to see services that are either geographically or emotional close to us fall foul of budgetary shortfalls; However in the current climate and financial restrictions these shortfalls are inevitable and a necessary compromise to allow the city to function.

That said after discussing the shortfall issue with several people, sometimes heated discussions, it has become clear to me that if asked the question "Would you pay a little more on your council tax to protect whatever cause" the answer is usually yes. The issue with this is that by increasing the overall council tax city wide would not necessary protect whatever service that an individual chooses.

The answer to this is simple and already out there. Crowd Funding.

Let me give an example.

The Hartcliffe play park has been in the news recently as budget cuts means that the staffing levels at the park will be affected. Twenty Five Thousand people have signed a petition to help protect this much loved park. The deficit to maintain the staffing levels is published as £120,000. This equates to less than £5 per person per year, in real terms 40p per month. I am sure that if you ask the 25,000 people to contribute 40p a month to maintain the staffing levels a the park you would be surprised how many more may contribute either on a one off payment or monthly set up.

To summarise the council should facilitate a crowd funding option that individual services could attract people to all contribute a little to compensate any deficits in budgets, this way people can help services that they want and is democracy in action.