Views wanted on budget plan

Residents in East Kilbride and Avondale are being urged to give their views on South Lanarkshire Council’s budget proposals.

The call came after the executive committee was presented with a 2019/20 budget strategy paper which outlined plans for £18 million of cuts – reduced to just over £13m once corporate solutions were taken into account – with 139 jobs also at risk.

The final decision on cuts will be made after the council finds out how much it will receive from the Scottish Government in its block grant and the paper was deferred to a later meeting.

Another report advised the committee that almost £400m was expected be invested in the area in the next decade.

Council leader John Ross (SNP) insists the latest proposals were designed to protect key frontline services as far as possible.

He said:“The executive committee agreed with my suggestion that a decision on the proposals should be deferred to allow more time for those considerations – and that means we also have more time to listen to our local residents.

“I’m sure lots of people will have a view and we really want to hear from them. However, everyone needs to understand the budget has to balance so any savings that come out have to be replaced with something else.

“We won’t know the full picture until we have our grant from the government confirmed in December but it is worth pointing out that even with the savings required, I would expect that the council will have a budget of around £700m next year.”

As well as deferring the report outlining the draft budget and savings proposals, the committee approved a 10-year future capital investment strategy.

Visit www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/ savings to give opinions on the budget proposals via an online survey.

Submissions and suggestions can be emailed to savings@southlanarkshire. gov.uk or addressed to Savings Consultation, South Lanarkshire Council, Almada Street, Hamilton ML3 0AA.