But council will be forced to dip into reserves to cover £7m budget gap
NICOLA FINDLAY & STEPHEN BARK
South Lanarkshire’s political groups came together last week to pass a “consensus budget”and remove £3 million of proposed savings.
But residents in East Kilbride and Strathaven will still see a rise in council tax payments of three per cent as part of the the council’s budget.
However, cuts to leisure centre opening hours, classroom materials budgets, flood risk management and trading standards were among those removed from the table.
And that includes the proposed reduction in opening hours at Stewartfield Community Centre for the second year in a row.
Independent East Kilbride West Councillor David Watson previously raised concerns over plans to close the centre on a Saturday afternoon and early on a Sunday evening.
He said: “The facility is well used by the local community for birthday parties on a Saturday afternoon.
“This is the only indoor council facility in Stewartfield and it is important that the opening hours are maintained and not reduced to the extent that it could eventually lead to its closure.”
But plans to include the cuts in the budget were scrapped before councillors met to pass a final version.
Whilst the community centre was given a reprieve, £7 million of savings still had to be made and it was said that the council will have to dip into its reserves more next year to cover the budget gap.
The budget was approved after negotiations between the political groups.
Overall, the local authority agreed a total of £6.922 million in savings for 2020/21.
At a meeting of the full council last Wednesday, leader of the Labour Group in South Lanarkshire, East Kilbride Central North Councillor Joe Fagan, seconded council leader John Ross’ budget motion, but said his party “couldn’t pretend” it “fully meets” the needs of South Lanarkshire.
He said, however, the budget “affords an added level of protection to frontline services and frontline workers” and was agreed on “in the spirit of compromise and consensus”.
Councillor Fagan said: “For as long as local government is under-valued and the public sector is under-funded, councils will have to make difficult decisions and those decisions are not getting any easier.
“Nonetheless, councillors have a duty to all those who depend on us to set as fair and as reasonable a budget as possible.”
He said, however, the budget “affords an added level of protection to frontline services and frontline workers” and was agreed on “in the spirit of compromise and consensus”.
Councillor Fagan added: “In seeking consensus on the way forward, Labour have sought to protect frontline