Austerity attacked as £35 garden waste charge looms

The Dundee public are “sick to the back teeth of austerity politics,” the man in charge of the city’s finances has claimed.

The SNP/Independent administration’s finance spokesman Willie Sawers said local authorities have no choice but to cut services and raise fees in a bid to balance the books.

Mr Sawers said the Dundee City Council administration is trying to minimise the impact on frontline services wherever possible, but said it will be looking to make voluntary redundancies.

“There will be a voluntary redundancy process. I wouldn’t like to put a number on that but we have to look at service provision and the impact on that,” he said.

He added although the council is looking to save £450,000 by reducing the number of primary and early years assistants it employs by 27, it will be creating 50 new posts to cope with the burden of providing additional early years childcare demanded by the Scottish Government.

It is receiving additional funding to pay for these jobs.

“I would hope there will be a minimum impact on public services,” Mr Sawers said.

“What I would add is the expansion of early years provision so there will obviously be an opportunity for redeployment.”

He said: “Times are hard. We can’t deny that.

“I think the public are sick to the back teeth of austerity politics which has led to councils being in the situation they’re in.

“I’m glad I’m finance convener of a Scottish local authority because if you look at some of the reactions that have been made in England and Wales, they’ve lost 40% of their revenue funding over the years.

“Where we are at is quite a protected position. We did a survey with the public and unsurprisingly the public’s priorities are services for the most vulnerable.”

Mr Sawers said introducing a £35 annual fee for the collection of garden waste in 2020 will help pay for other services.

He said: “It’s going to bring in hundreds of thousands of pounds a year. That’s at least four primary school teachers, for example.”