Budget process to continue till February

South Lanarkshire finance officials are pouring over the details of their 2017-18 grant from the Scottish Government.

The figures were sent to the council following Scottish Government finance secretary Derek Mckay’s announcement to Holyrood last week.

Council leader Eddie Mcavoy had told the council’s executive committee last week that the local authority could be in a position to approve the budget at a full council meeting on January 26.

A paper put before the committee on £22.461m in savings, involving 282 posts across council services, was continued for a special January 16 executive meeting.

However, it is now set to be discussed at the February 8 executive committee meeting.

The loss of posts, it has been pointed out, could be met through “natural turnover, vacancies, early retirement and redeployment”.

Mr Mcavoy has already insisted that South Lanarkshire would not put up Council Tax despite the Scottish Government ending a nine-year tax freeze deal with local authorities.

South Lanarkshire Council SNP group spokesman Sheena Wardhaugh accused Mr Mcavoy this week of “making sweeping statements before his own finance team have had a chance to analyse the settlement in detail”.

She added: “We will know the final position after the New Year. I note however that he does not mention Council Tax Reform income, every penny of which stays in South Lanarkshire under Council control. This should allow us to avoid some of the proposed savings - particularly those affecting the most vulnerable.”

The deadline for setting the council’s £660m budget is March 11.