‘I’m confident these savings will have a minimal impact on frontline services’

IT’S the most important spending decision councillors will have to make all year.

And i n the coming months, Dundee City Council will need to make savings of £12.5 million in an effort to balance the books.

Tonight the Tele looks at some of the figures behind the decision.

The council now has the flexibility to increase tax levels by up to 3%, which could generate another £1.45m for the economy.

Labour leader Kevin Keenan warned this could see people paying considerably more in council tax but for reduced services.

Unison’s Jim McFarlane said the union would be keeping a close watch on the situation and wouldn’t rule out industrial action to try to get a better settlement.

It has also been revealed Dundee children could be in line to receive a £4.975m boost towards their education, thanks to a share of £120m of Scottish Government money being made available for education, which will be paid directly to head teachers.

Stewart Hunter, the city council’s education spokesman, said: “We’re still trying to confirm the figure and we hope to be able to bring something to committee in the next fortnight.”

There will also be an increase in early learning and childcare for youngsters of up to 1,140 hours.

At the moment most preschool children get a morning or afternoon session in early learning but by increasing the number of hours some will be entitled to a full day.

Councillor Laurie Bidwell, Labour’s education spokesman, welcomed the news that schools will receive funding to help to close the attainment gap.

He said: “There are details yet to be announced including how long the funding will last. We also need the scale of the cuts to the mainstream schools budget for 2017/18 to be clarified.”

Policy changes at a national level are also set to affect the council’s finances. This year, the UK Government withdrew tax rebates for employees sacrificing certain pension benefits — adding £4.4m to the council’s annual wage bill.

In addition, a new Apprenticeship Levy introduced by Westminster will add another £1m to the council’s bill next year.

News that £12.5m of savings will have to be made has caused concern among many councillors, council staff and union bosses, who fear key frontline services will have to be cut to meet the budget savings. There are also concerns that jobs could be lost, key facilities such as libraries closed and that all aspects of life in the city will be adversely affected.

Despite this, the council administration insists that the budget will have “minimal impact” on the dayto-day lives of Dundonians.

But Willie Sawers, the SNP’s finance spokesman, insisted the council will do all that it can to protect frontline services. He said: “The public, council workers and unions will be told well in advance what the budget proposals are.

“They’ll be given the opportunity to comment prior to the budget meeting on February 23. I’m confident we can avoid further compulsory redundancies and I’m also confident any cuts required will have a minimum impact on frontline services — that remains our priority. We can deliver this budget with the minimum impact on the people of Dundee.”

However, opposition councillors and union bosses said the proposed budget could have a “devastating” effect. Mr Keenan said: “It will be no easy task for the council to have to find another £12.5m of savings on top of the £23m we were forced to find last year.

“There’s bound to be a major effect on frontline services.”