Budget proposals could have been public

Sir, – It is utterly disingenuous of the leaders of Fife Council to claim they had no choice but to embargo the budget proposals until 24 hours before the meeting when the council formally sets the budget (Budget plan “cloak and dagger” claims, Courier February 25).

Other local authorities such as Edinburgh were in exactly the same boat as far as final figures from the UK and Scottish governments were concerned, but they did not seek to keep their residents in the dark.

If the leaders were able to consult the unions privately before then as well as informing numerous Fife Council officers and Fife councillors months ago when “savings” options were compiled, there is absolutely no reason why the proposals could not have been published and gone out to public consultation well before Christmas.

This would have allowed Fifers to participate in an informed public discussion which in turn would have given the SNP-Labour coalition at Fife Council valuable information about the views of those whom their budget will directly affect – which might then have influenced councillors’ final selection of cuts.

Why didn’t the SNPLabour coalition do that?

Because, in Councillor David Ross’s words, “we didn’t want to start raising unnecessary concerns amongst staff”.

In the event, staff and others have been very anxious about prospective cuts, because they knew about them on the union grapevine and from leaks to newspapers, but they, and everybody else in Fife, were denied any chance to have their say about them.

This may have spared the SNP-Labour coalition a certain amount of grief, but it has done absolutely nothing for public trust in the council.

At a time when community engagement and empowerment is all the rage, what does this say about those in charge at Fife Council? Linda Holt. Independent Councillor, East Neuk and Landward, Anstruther.