Authority spending plans to hit Fifers in the pocket

● Council tax to increase by maximum 4.84% ● Authority targets £5.9 million in savings ● Education budget to be slashed by £3.5 million ● Funding for 350 nursery and early learning staff ● No cuts to leisure services

Fifers will see their council tax bills rise by 4.84% in April after the local authority’s spending plans for the coming year were rubber-stamped.

Councillors voted to hike the levy this year by the full level available to them to avoid a further £3 million in cuts to services, as part of a near-£820m budget package for 2020-21.

Faced with bridging a budget gap of more than £15.4m, the joint SNP/ Labour administration not only agreed the council tax rise – which will net £7.9m and see average bills go up by around £60 – but also approved £5.9m worth of savings.

Education and children’s services will bear the brunt, with more than £3.5m of cuts proposed. Up to 90 jobs could be lost, although a further £9m in savings put forward by officers was rejected.

Proposals for cuts to school transport, subsidised transport, demand responsive transport and concessionary rail have been rejected this year, while a plan to slash £1.7m more from the parks, streets and open spaces budget was also thrown out.

A £1.7m grant reduction for Fife’s health and social care partnership has been approved to help balance the books, although the council has pledged to ensure Fife’s share of an additional £100m announced by the Scottish Government for health and social care will be allocated in full – all adding up to a net increase of nearly £5m in the coming year.

Council co-leader David Ross said he was “sick, tired and fed up” of having to deliver budgets containing cuts but described it as the “least worst” option given resources available.

Co-leader David Alexander echoed those sentiments, adding while the two political groups forming the administration have different views on the adequacy of the funding settlement for local government, the proposals set out were the best way of protecting local services in “difficult and challenging” times.

Exactly what the £3.5m education cuts mean in practice has not been made clear, but almost half of that figure will come through a review of devolved school management and a review of the secondary school week. That could see more schools cutting classroom time.

Around £700,000 will be saved through a review of early years officer posts and £85,000 will be recouped through a review of attendance officer posts.

A reorganisation of parks, streets and open spaces services, together with a more “robust approach” to charging for work done on land which is not owned by the council, is expected to save £500,000 without a significant impact on frontline services.

No additional cuts in funding to the council’s four arms-length trusts – Fife Sports and Leisure Trust, Fife Cultural Trust, Fife Coast and Countryside Trust and Fife Golf Trust – will be made this year, while more than £100,000 in new investment has been targeted at two areas.

The first will see cash made available for a 50% cut in charges for music tuition for second and subsequent children in a family, while a further £75,000 will cover a shortfall in funding for Developing the Young Workforce.

Ring-fenced resources amounting to £47m will mainly be focused on early years and childcare but there is also cash for criminal justice social work, the Pupil Equity Fund and Gaelic as per the Scottish Government’s guidance.

The budget was passed following a roll call vote, with the administration’s motion gaining 45 votes.

Tory leader Dave Dempsey’s alternative proposals, which featured a 3.85% council tax increase and the restoration of recycling centre and leisure centre hours, received 12 votes, while the Liberal Democrat proposals backing a 4.84% council tax rise received five votes.

Mr Dempsey described the administration plan as a “dull, lacklustre, woebegone, do nothing budget”, while Lib Dem councillor James Calder said the SNP had “taken their eye off the ball in their single-minded pursuit of independence”.

Council rents and charges will go up by 3%, the lowest of three options tabled, which means the average weekly rent will rise by £2.20 to £75.45.

Charges for lock-ups will be frozen, while a rental increase of 3% on homeless temporary accommodation will be imposed.

Housing convener Judy Hamilton hailed proposals totalling more than £264m over the next three years, which include £60m of additional investment for priorities.

The plan for 2020-21 includes £32m for component replacement, £12.9m for wider works – such as major/minor projects and fuel poverty measures – and £26.1m for the affordable housing programme.