Councillors face ‘daunting’ budget
A SPECIAL meeting today of Argyll and Bute Council is expected to approve plans for a ‘high level’ series of measures to slash spending over the next three financial years.
Councillors will face stark financial facts in the papers before them: an estimated £20 million black hole in the budget between 2018 and 2021, and a swingeing cuts and job losses to help save £11 million – just over half the shortfall – with more needed in the near future.
Plans include dozens of redundancies as well as raising charges for environmental and animal health services, cutting the number of council depots, increasing parking charges, shutting down 36 of 57 public toilets, starting a funeral director service, scrapping the road safety unit, removing the renewable energy budget and stopping funding VisitScotland.
Last Thursday, the Policy and Resources Committee agreed to refer the budget decision to today’s full council meeting (Thursday October 26) and, if approved, it will head to a public consultation in November.
Committee members expressed concern at the possible effects, with Councillor Robin Currie saing: ‘It would be very useful if we could get an idea of what redundancies will have an effect on service delivery.’
Councillor Sandy Taylor added: ‘What we need to know is the strategic approach to implementing these measures – for example, the toilet closures. We need to discuss the detail before we can decide what to take forward.’
The council’s executive director of customer services, Douglas Hendry, responded: ‘Officers haven’t had the time or resources to identify this level of detail, which is why we have taken a high level approach.’
He added: ‘I apologise for the fact this is a high level consideration, but that is where we are.’
Council chief executive Cleland Sneddon said: ‘It is absolutely daunting to have to find savings of this scale over this three-year timescale. Unfortunately, we are going to have to concentrate first and foremost on the key and core services we are required to provide.’
In a letter to The Oban Times, former Dunoon councillor Michael Breslin wrote: ‘This council is the most inefficient on the planet in my view, with some three-million-or-so paid miles to staff and councillors running back and forwards to Lochgilphead and elsewhere, wasting time and polluting the countryside.
‘Decentralising the council to the four current administrative areas would save a fortune and hugely increase efficiency. Decentralising would save about £2.3 million alone, with only a handful of highly paid jobs lost.
‘With good locally-based managers, responsible for all services, we would have increased accountability and speedier decision-making. Until this council does this, money will continue to be wasted wholesale.
‘It’s not too late to consider this before we lose dozens of lower-paid jobs and see services further damaged. And, of course, among the many cuts there’s a senseless proposal to spend more money on employing a funeral director, to presumably compete against the many funeral services we have throughout Argyll and Bute. You really couldn’t make this stuff up.’
An Argyll and Bute Council spokesperson responded: ‘At this stage our budget gap for 2018/19 alone is estimated to be between £0.9 million and £8.5 million.
‘The exact funding allocation will not be confirmed until December, yet the council must deliver a balanced budget in February 2018.
‘We have therefore identified possible savings options and efficiencies to help bridge our funding gap over the next three years. We are keen to receive views from our communities that will help inform the decisions that ultimately need to be taken. Budget and saving options will be considered for consultation at Thursday’s meeting of the full council.’
The council also stressed the number of full-time equivalent posts identified in the savings options would be 37.8, not 90, adding: ‘Wherever possible we will use early retirement or voluntary redundancy to create opportunities for people who wish to stay by freeing up posts of people who wish to leave.’