Council tax and rents rise as budget agreed
Staff reductions and arts cuts shelved meantime
Councillors unanimously agreed Stirling Council’s budget for the next financial year at a meeting yesterday (Thursday).
As expected, council tax is set to increase by three per cent.
This will see the current Band D rise to £1,233 before water and sewage charges - and generate £1.5million of funding for the council, which officers said would still have to find £20million worth of savings over the next five years.
A council house rent rise of 1.6 per cent was also agreed, bringing the weekly average to £70.60.
The SNP/Labour joint administration has already annouced it would reject officers’ suggested budget cuts to the Smith Art Gallery and Museum and the Big Noise Raploch project, and also ruled out reductions to school menu choice, the educational psychology service, grounds maintenance and grass cutting, as well as increases in parking and telecare charges.
Some of the 42 initial options have been shelved will be revisited again over the next 12 months, including staff reductions in some areas including administration, and reducing staff overtime.
Among budget options kept in by the administration are the establishment of children’s services multi-agency locality teams and taking over the running of the Wellgreen Car Park.
Finance convener Councillor Margaret Brisley said while the possibility of shared headships was being left in the budget, none were imminent as money was already being saved with the mothballing of Buchanan Primary School. Shared headships, she added, would only be considered on a case by a case basis and, if any went ahead, would likely concentrate on smaller schools and not secondary schools or larger primaries.
Active Stirling, which only recently concluded a new agreement to operate the council’s leisure services, will also be expected to save £430,000 over the next five years.
Generating income from advertising on council assets including buildings and roundabouts, introducing solar canopies at The Peak and Castleview Park and Ride, reducing the council vehicle fleet were also agreed.
Investment will see £1million for initiatives including a pilot project to target holiday hunger among school pupils; investing £200,000 to mitigate the impact of Universal Credit; making Stirling a Dementia-Friendly City; enhancing cemetery maintenance and introducing 20mph zones.
Tory group leader Councillor Neil Benny said much of the budget was “emminently supportable”, however moved an amendment which proposed some changes including the rejection of shared headships, the deferral of Active Stirling and McLaren Community Leisure Centre savings to allow more impact analysis, the setting up of a £40,000 community sport equipment fund, £20,000 for dog fouling initiatives, £21,000 for grass cutting and parks improvements, a £30,000 for an employment initiative for adults with learning difficulties; and expanding the timescale of support aimed at easing the introduction of Universal Credit.
The Tories secured the backing of independent councillor Robert Davies, however their amendment fell after the SNP/Labour administration and sole Green councillor Alasdair Tollemache voted against it.
Council leader Scott Farmer (SNP) took the opportunity to add: “Should we be saying to the council tax payers of Stirling that they should have to put in their hard-earned money to mitigate the impact of Tory austerity and welfare cuts? You should be liaising with your party and your MP?”
Councillor Benny replied: “It’s depressing. We are trying to approach these things in a positive way and all we get is insult and reproach.”
The administration’s budget was, however, passed unanimously after the Tories agreed to give it their support.
The council is also set to invest across capital projects including over £2million for City Deal projects, over £300,000 to enhance parks and play areas, £1.1million for a flood prevention scheme fund, over £5million to enhance schools and early years and £1million to improve the area’s digital connectivity.
For in-depth coverage of the budget see next Wednesday’s Observer.
We are trying to approach things in a positive way and all we get is insult and reproach . . .