Hundreds of jobs will be lost and a wide range of public services axed or cut back as Argyll and Bute Council tries to save £18m over the next two years.
School crossing patrols and the mobile library services could be cut altogether under the ‘Service Choices’ programmes, as well as schools, waste management and street cleaning facing cuts.
Next week the council will be asked to put the proposals forward for public consultation, at a meeting in Lochgilphead where the agenda also includes plans to recruit additional staff in the council’s communications team.
Faced with cuts in funding from the Scottish Government and unable to increase Council Tax levels, the local authority has drawn up a package of cuts which would see its 5,000-strong workforce cut by the equivalent of 300 full-time jobs.
A new ‘charitable leisure trust’ would take over the running of the council’s libraries, swimming pools, fitness centres and community halls, with an additional 125 staff being transferred into the new organisation under a TUPE process.
Other councils, including Glasgow, have already formed similar trusts, arguing that as charities they can apply for funding sources not available to councils, but they are not subject to pubic scrutiny in the same way as councils.
Even though the council doesn’t need to save as much money as originally feared, the proposed cuts are on a scale which is unprecedented in this area.
Scores of services are marked for reduction or closure, but there is scope for some of these to be saved after the consultation process ends in December, as the total savings currently leave some leeway.
The proposals include:
- All school crossing patrols being axed
- Withdrawal of the mobile library service
- Classroom and pupil support assistant numbers being cut by 20%
- Budgets for individual primary and secondary schools being cut by 20%
- School librarians being ‘removed’ completely
- The food waste collection in Helensburgh and Lomond cut completely.
- The number of music instrumental instructors being cut by 20%, while music tuition fees are hiked by 50%
- A 20% increase in burial and cremation charges
- 43 public toilets being closed
- Street cleaning frequency cut by 50%
- Increased parking charges –year-round at places including Luss
The proposed consultation document includes a comment from council leader Dick Walsh: “We would like to do all that our communities want their council to do for them, but drastically reduced funding means that this is just not possible.
“We need to make choices about the work we do… we need to decide how we can make best use of the resources we have.”
Thursday’s special meeting of the policy and resources committee will also be asked to approve the recruitment of two additional communications officers at an annual cost of £76,000, saying the current team is ‘small in comparison to the demand for support and potential for progress’.
The roles would be open to current employees in other areas facing redundancy.
The full list of proposed cuts is here: Service Choices Report – Appendix 1
Shut the cludgies, sack the lollipop ladies and hire some spin doctors! Trebles all round!
Are these cuts to help pay for the rumoured to be mistakes made in the construction of the new sea wall of their new offices? Apparently this could lead to the moving in date being put off until next year?
Time the Council Tax was raised. Too much central control over budgets. Give power back to the people!!!
Hmmm, power to the people? More like power to the inefficient, money wasting bufoons at Kilmory. How much do we pay councillors – and for what exactly? So much money wasted this forces them to look at where they can become efficient and save money – but they’d better tread carefully. Wonder if they’d like to take a wee salary cut from their healthy salaries? For example, I’d be OK with 4 weekly bin collections, but would need a bigger bin. I don’t need a composting bin, get rid of it. Saw the recycling going to Jamestown recently, does this mean that A&BC pay West Dumbartonshire for the pleasure? Easy peasy……
I’m just waiting patiently to see how this goes before starting to consider what options we have to really campaign against.
I recall that the Spanish weren’t happy about a tax increase in fuel duties some years back. They actually had the backbones to do something about it and caused chaos. Two days is all it took, government backed down. It’s not hard to campaign effectively, just takes a little effort for what you believe in. Trouble is, too many people are armchair complainers