Leader promises a budget for security, stability and success
BUDGET SPECIAL: All the key decisions and how they will impact residents
ARGYLL and Bute Council’s administration has passed its budget promising ‘security, stability and success’.
Twenty councillors voted for the administration’s budget motion, proposed by council leader Dick Walsh, defeating the one-year budget proposed by SNP leader Councillor Sandy Taylor, which drew nine votes, and Councillor Michael Breslin’s Reform group amendment, which attracted three.
The introductory report, presented by head of strategic finance Kirsty Flanagan at a full council meeting at Kilmory Castle, Argyll and Bute Council’s HQ in Lochgilphead, on Thursday February 23, stated more than 1,700 people responded to a consultation on which services matter most and where savings could be made.
Councillor Walsh said: ‘We have succeeded in balancing a budget, despite a reduction in Scottish Government funding of £6.3 million. We have secured a surplus of £193,000 that will help to fill the funding gap anticipated next year of £3.6 million. We have delivered another £1.4 million of effi- ciency savings this year without impact on communities.
‘ We are in a better position than many other councils. However, the harsh facts of drastically reducing funding mean that we need the help of our communities to protect the services they use. We are protecting jobs and services in challenging times when our economy most needs them.’
The opposition SNP group proposed a one-year ‘community empowerment budget’, which Councillor Taylor said would allocate funding across local areas via a ‘participatory budgeting strategy’ and hand decision-making responsibility to local people.