Budget fury

A Rutherglen charity says the lifeline support it provides local families will be slashed if South Lanarkshire Council agrees to cut its funding by £96,000 next year.

Healthy n Happy launched a stinging attack on the proposals this week.

Residents of Rutherglen and Cambuslang have been asked to have their say on South Lanarkshire Council’s proposals to save £22.64million.

The local authority recently published their 60-page paper setting out how they plan to achieve the savings required to balance their 2017/18 budget.

Proposals include plans to cut the home care budget by 1.7m, a £450,000 cut to youth services and slashing the Healthy n Happy and VASLan grants by £166,000 and £96,000 respectively.

Stating council officers have tried to protect frontline services as much as possible, council leader Eddie McAvoy said:“The proposals have been developed by council officers based on the potential savings we might be forced to make.

“These are just options at the moment but we are legally obliged to balance our budget, so if any proposals in the package are rejected we need to find other ways to save the money.

“There’s a responsibility on councillors of all parties to ensure that such alternatives are fully affordable.

“Every saving we make has a potential impact on people in our communities so it is important we get their views too.

“Tough decisions will have to be taken once again, but we want local people to work with us to do everything possible to protect key frontline services.”

The saving proposals were presented to councillors at last week’s meeting of the executive committee, who decided to continue discussions on the subject until December 14.

This will allow councillors further time to consider the proposals and allow the public consultation to take place.

The council’s forecasted budget for 2017/18 is £660m but the final settlement from the Scottish Government will not be known for some weeks.