Council facing £ 48.2m blackhole in four years
Audit warn of dipping into local authority reserves
Finance bosses at South Ayrshire Council could face a £ 43.2 million black hole over the next four years.
Since 2013 the council has scrimped £ 21.1 million savings due to cuts.
But auditors have warned it needs to continue radically changing how it rolls out services to cope with less money.
The budget for this current financial year has dipped into £ 1.5 million of reserves. Figures from March showed the council had £ 6.7 million of reserves stocked up.
Auditors said using up reserves was sustainable in the short- term.
However they warned the council only to reach for reserves within recommended levels.
The finances were presented to the Audit and Governance Panel last Wednesday by Deloitte.
Auditors said the council had strong budget setting and financial monitoring processes robust enough to achieve financial targets despite challenges.
Independent councillor Alec Clark said: “Overall this report shows the good work done by the council.”
He added: “I want congratulate the team.”
He told the auditors the council is hampered in devising a longterm strategy as it relies on Scottish Government funding, which is difficult to predict.
The finance strategy for 2018 to 2022 estimates a funding gap of between £ 25.7 million and £ 43.2 million.
The report from Deloitte said: “It is imperative that detailed plans are developed to demonstrate that to the required savings can be made, with the associated supporting infrastructure to be able to deliver on these.”
F o l l owi n g a s e n i o r management reshuffle a fresh transformation plan is to be submitted at South Ayrshire.
The meeting also heard one per cent of the entire budget should be subject to community engagement. The Scottish Government set a one per cent participatory budgeting target for 2021.
South Ayrshire reached only 0.3 per cent of the target during 2017 to 2018.
Councillor Alec Clark compared part i c i p a tor y budgeting to the X- Factor.
He said: “It is almost like an X- Factor competition. People turn up expecting a pot of gold.