Angus budget set

• Council tax to increase by 3% • Authority claims 2.5% reduction in budget • Number of teachers to be cut • Charges for council services to rise by 3%, green bin collection by 5.5% • £3 million for A92 “reunification” scheme in Arbroath

Angus councillors have passed a 3% rise in council tax as the cash-strapped local authority tackles a funding shortfall of £16.4 million next year.

Councillors limited themselves to the relatively small increase while many other Scottish councils, including Fife, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have opted for rises of almost 5%.

The rise will mean the charge for a band D property will go up from £1,171 to £1,206 in the coming financial year, around £35 more per year.

Council deputy leader Angus Macmillan Douglas said: “It is all too easy for politicians to put up taxes and spend other people’s money.”

He said the council is facing a 2.5% cut in funding for core services in 2020/21 – or 22% when looking at the previous three years and the forecasts for the next two years combined.

“This is the Scottish Government getting the local authorities to carry out the government’s tax rises for them,” he added.

Most other council charges will see an increase of around 3% apart from the annual charge for a green waste bin, which grows by 5.5% to £30 a year.

The council is also planning to use some of its £8.7m of financial reserves, although Wednesday’s deal between the SNP and the Greens in Holyrood may deliver additional money meaning this is not required.

Councillor Bill Duff, SNP group deputy leader, accused the administration of using “spin” on the budget figures.

He said when the additional money for ring-fenced activities was included, such as an expansion of early learning and childcare, the budget for the forthcoming year had gone up.

He said the council had actually received an increase of £9.9m, or 4.8%, for 2020/21.

“We have experienced austerity since 2010. This has hit all areas of the public sector in the UK,” he said.

He proposed an alternative spending plan including removing controversial car parking charges in Brechin, Kirriemuir and Carnoustie, a new £1.5m fund for town centres, and making a smaller cut to the budget of arts and sports body Angus Alive.

The administration’s budget passed 17 votes to 11.

Pupils in some of the most deprived schools in Angus will lose “additional” teachers as the council battles to balance its books.

Schools in the county’s poorest areas will be hardest hit after councillors unanimously agreed to cut the head count by 25.5 full-time equivalent posts – 8.5 of them coming from schools in deprived areas.

Councillors agreed to the reduction ahead of a full budget meeting in Forfar’s Town and County Hall yesterday.

The council hopes the cuts will save the authority £1,056,000 by 2023/24 as it moves to close a £16.4 million budget shortfall in 2020/21.

Council papers state there are 586 primary teachers in the county and it is understood some of the posts have already been removed.

Mike Callaghan, Angus local association secretary for trade union the EIS, spoke out against the cuts before councillors approved the move.

He spoke to The Courier afterwards and said he had chosen to “remain silent on this up to this point”.

“But I am elected by 800 teachers in Angus, so I can’t stay silent for ever.

“I don’t know what the solution is. The budget is constrained and that is not through the choice of Angus Council.”

He said they were not losing teachers but reducing the capacity of the service but that would impact on those who remained.

“It will make it more difficult for new teachers coming in to find a job,” he said.

More than eight full-time equivalent posts will be taken from schools where there are issues with poverty, including Hayshead, Warddykes, St Thomas, Ladyloan, Muirfield, Strathmore, Andover, Southesk and Southmuir.

The mandatory pupil-to-teacher ratio will still be met after the changes.

The number of specialist teachers will also fall from 18 to 8 “through time”.

Council officials argue the affected teaching posts are “additional” as they are above and beyond the council’s statutory provision.