Spending on the environment is a leading priority
Residents’environmental concerns are being addressed in the budget, with funding from the unusual £8 million budget surplus available this year being directed to issues ranging from pest control to road improvements.
A total of £150,000 is being allocated to increased pest control, to“treat defined priority areas over the summer period to address local concerns”.
North Lanarkshire’s environment committee heard last month how reports of rat sightings across the authority area have increased in each of the past four years, reaching 1500 reports during 2019-2020.
A further £680,000 is to be spent on road improvements“to provide additional community benefit”– ranging from pothole repairs, resurfacing and infrastructure upgrades to safety schemes and signage upgrades such as 20mph indicators.
Meanwhile, new Recover NL clean-up teams will be formed using £500,000 of funding, to fund“visible clean-ups in all communities”which will also bring in volunteers and charities.
Cemeteries are to have £250,000 spent on upgrades including improving paths and edging, and another £150,000 will be used to improve accessibility in public spaces and active travel routes though an initiative named Drop the Kerb.
North Lanarkshire leader Jim Logue said:“we’ve been asking people to highlight their budget priorities – this administration has attempted to incorporate some of the issues articulated.”
Finance convener Bob Burrows added:“we hear about roads, cemeteries and vermin sightings. We understand the frustration of communities when these don’t live up to expectations.
“I’m pleased to commit significant money to repair our roads, tackle pest control and tackle litter and fly tipping, the things our constituents say are most important to them.”
The environmental theme was continued with a £100,000 tree-planting project, involving every pupil at North Lanarkshire’s primary and additional support needs schools,“in recognition of the climate challenges we face” ahead of November’s climate change conference in Glasgow.
Conservative group leader Meghan Gallacher told how her group proposed both a pothole fund and one to tackle the“blight of fly-tipping”, saying of the latter: “We’ve always had this issue at the forefront and our budget set aside £170,000 to clean up North Lanarkshire.”
The SNP group’s budget paper, which was unsuccessful, had additionally proposed spending £100,000 on reversing the previous decision for the council to cease grass cutting in public areas which it does not own.
It had originally been due to come into effect 12 months ago and was then delayed by the pandemic, but local authority officials stressed then that the policy would instead begin from next month.
SNP finance convener Jim Hume said:“we would reverse previous budget decisions on festive lighting, grass cutting and grit bin reduction, and ongoing provision should form part of community boards’participatory budgeting.”