Unpopular savings ideas may not budge
Councillors hear all options on table
Unpalatable budget options will continue to stay on the table for the foreseeable future as Stirling Council seeks to save £32 million over the next five years.
Next year’s council budget will seek more input from locals - but councillors heard last Thursday that officials couldn’t commit to withdrawing unpopular budget cut ideas despite pledging to also come up with new options.
The council’s finance and economy committee approved a “multiple channel approach” to budget planning for 2020/21, including expanding on engagement with locals and council staff, plus a range of next steps.
The move is seen as building on the controversial Big Conversation strategy which ran in 2018 as a pilot and the Your Stirling: You Decide initiative which is currently taking place.
SNP councillor Jim Thomson said he hoped options which had been rejected “time and time again” would not reappear as part of the new process.
However, chief finance officer Jim Boyle said: “With the scale of financial change facing the public sector generally it may be that we have to come back to them. The council has expressed a view that some options are politically, and from a service point of view, unacceptable yet they have to remain on the table because we are going to have to make unpalatable decisions at some point. Officers have to consider all the possibilities available to them and it is for you as elected members to decide.”
Tory group leader Councillor Neil Benny said: “We expect services to come up with something original because one of the things in the past has been, for example, music tuition, which has come up for a number of years in a row. It does sometimes feel as if officers are bringing back the same issues again and again without looking deeper.”
Mr Boyle said: “Just to clarify, they are just saying we need to remember they may stay on the table in some shape or form. It’s not to say that’s all we would bring forward.”
Speaking after the committee finance and economy convener Councillor Margaret Brisley said: “This new budgeting process will enable citizens and staff to inform, influence and shape the future of their communities across Stirling and how services are delivered.
“While the council continues to face financial challenges over the coming years, this process is also an exciting opportunity to inspire people to participate in local democracy and create more active and stronger communities. We have learned the lessons from the Big Conversation and this year’s Your Stirling: You Decide initiative, which will help us reach out to citizens in more effective ways, give them more of a direct say in how money is spent and ensure this proves a success.”
The new approach will including meetings with community organisations and other local groups such as sports and book clubs; increased use of social media; revisiting ideas from previous budget exercises; and looking at what has worked for other public bodies.
Vice convener Councillor Alison Laurie said: “We want all our citizens to have their voices heard and this transformative approach will enable them to clearly express what is important to them, including those who have traditionally faced barriers to having their say.”
But Tory group leader Councillor Neil Benny said: “It really doesn’t look all that different from the old system. You can dress it up any way you want, but budgeting needs a strong focus on real reform, improved productivity and investment in the future.
“We can’t keep lurching from crisis to crisis, but I fear that is what are stuck with thanks to this hapless administration who handed back £4m of money that should have been spent on new council houses, wasted £1.7m on new bins for everyone and continue to give out huge payoffs to senior council managers. All this while cutting vital services like rural bus connections, countryside rangers and school budgets.”
We are going to have to make unpalatable decisions at some point