We’d like to know your views on our core offer to East Sussex and the public services it would include. The part the county council can play is likely to reduce over the coming years and it’s important to know how residents of East Sussex see the future.

We’re under intense financial pressure because our funding from central Government is falling even though demand for our services is rising. We’ve already made savings of £129 million this decade – money we could have used to care for 5,790 vulnerable adults or to fix 2.5 million potholes.

But we still face a further funding gap of up to £46 million in the next three years and by law we can only spend the money we have. We will have to step back from some of the services that have traditionally been provided.

To help manage this pressure, we think the best approach is to set out what we call a ‘core offer’ for our county and the 540,000 people who live here. This core offer is designed to provide a decent if basic level of service which we think is the least people should be able to expect from us. It enables us to fulfil our legal duties and invest in the county’s economy. It also signals our ambition to be transparent and efficient in everything we do and to work in partnership with the communities we serve.

We believe the core offer represents the best we can provide with the resources we currently have and puts them where they will have the greatest positive impact for the people who need us most. Please do take some time to read the core offer before taking the online survey.

For more information and to access the survey (which runs until 26 December 2018), please go to https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/yourcouncil/about/keydocuments/coreoffer/