PUBLIC opinion could sway how the North-East’s largest council wields the axe to cut £29 million in its spending next year.

Durham County Council has made more than £180million in cuts over the past five years and it is now launching a public consultation exercise over the next round of cuts.

Over the next five weeks the public can have their say online, at www.durham.gov.uk/budget, or fill in questionnaires available at eight Customer Access Points county-wide.

But they can also have their say at any of 14 Area Action Partnership (AAP) meetings across the county, staged between tomorrow (Tuesday September 6) and the end of the month.

Anyone wishing to attend one of the meetings must pre-register with the respective AAP.

A dedicated area of the website www.durham.gov.uk/budget, plus #budget on the council @DurhamCouncil twitter feed, will keep people up to date with all the opportunities and an in-house animation produced to try and reach new audiences who may not have previously participated.

Council leader, Simon Henig, said: “Government grants have reduced over the past five years by nearly half and continuing to find such unprecedented savings inevitably means tremendously tough decisions.

“From the very beginning of austerity we have asked the public to help us set priorities, and, many thousands of people have taken part.

“It is important that we understand how those priorities may have changed, so once again we are turning to our residents, partners and businesses for their help.

“By continuing to look for new and wider opportunities to talk to people we hope to get the public’s views on how we have done so far, what they think of our proposals for the future and to explain how communities or local organisations can help as our budgets continue to reduce.”

Consultation runs until October 7.