Social media tells us of the many different things on which residents would like Wokingham Borough Council to spend more money. Councillors have their own personal wish lists, too, but we have to consider the big picture of council responsibilities.

Wokingham Borough Council has a very wide range of spending commitments, from planning and highways to social care for the elderly and support for adults and children battling with physical or mental health problems.

Money allocated to one area of need is inevitably money that cannot be spent in another area. Sadly, we simply do not have the resources to support all areas to the extent that we would want. There is no escaping the fact that we have to make difficult choices.

Everywhere, council budgets are experiencing the double whammy of inflation and increased demand for services. For Wokingham, the challenge is made greater by historic underfunding by central government.

Recently, ministers belatedly granted councils extra funding for social services. But the additional money we received is unfortunately nowhere near enough to cover either inflationary pressures or increased demand.

We still have to find an additional £16 million through savings or income generation.

The situation would be worse if we did not focus a lot of effort on managing the council’s finances as efficiently and effectively as we can.

A council that has run out of money cannot provide the services that some of our residents desperately need, let alone those that are desirable but not absolutely essential.

If councils run down their reserves to a dangerously low level and are unable to set a balanced budget, government-appointed inspectors can take over their powers.

They cut all services to a statutory minimum and usually insist on a council tax increase of up to 10 per cent.  

Sound finances matter. Beware parties offering simple solutions. If irresponsible decisions are made to win votes, we all suffer sooner or later.