Lolli-chop proposal as budget cuts bite
Getting rid of lollipop staff and charging people to collect garden waste are among budget-cutting proposals set to be considered.
The wide-reaching cutbacks have been proposed by council officers to help meet the budget shortfall of £47.6 million over the next five years.
More than 109 pages of detailed proposals went before councillors last week after responses from the recent public consultation ran to 1,300 pages.
Removal of subsidised buses, another option being looked at, would bring savings of almost £2m over three years.
The revised passenger transport strategy would also alter qualification for school buses – cutting the current generous West Lothian allowance which is three miles for secondary children and two miles for those under eight to the statutory minimum, which is two miles and 1.5 miles.
The revised strategy would also see the scrapping of rail concessions.
The proposals, put before the public in the weeks before Christmas, attracted more than 7000 comments, second only to the 8000-plus made on education.
Cutting out crossing patrols, better known as Lollipop men and women, was another proposal, and would see 24 FTE jobs go to save £475,000 over three years.
All crossing patrols are at automated zebra crossings.
Council policy is against redundancies with redeployment being the preferred option.
However, officers acknowledged union representatives said it would be difficult to redeploy crossing staff in any meaningful way because of the part time nature of their work, and age – the majority being retired.
Services which see the most impact will be in cleansing if agreed.
These include introducing charges for garden waste removal, cutting the opening hours for recycling centres.
Union rep Tom CarrPollock told the meeting that the cuts would hit the lowest earners the hardest and that Operational Services was again the easiest to hit. He said staffing levels were reaching dangerously low levels.