The public consultation into huge cuts planned by Argyll and Bute Council has now gone live online.
Residents are being asked to score more than 100 services on a scale of 1-5 as the beleaguered authority tries to save £18m over two years.
More than 300 jobs are under threat, with services facing cuts or closure including school crossing patrols, classroom assistants , public toilets and household waste collection.
Education, which accounts for almost half of the council’s spending, could be hit particularly hard, and parents have formed groups protesting against the plans.
But hardly any cuts are proposed to chief executive Sally Loudon’s own unit – in a previous cost-cutting exercise this was said to have a budget of £6.7m, but only the strategic finance unit is mentioned in the consultation, with the cut in spending being a maximum of £140,000.
Nor is there any mention of whether the council should follow several other Scottish authorities in leaving the umbrella organisation COSLA.
The consultation will close on December 31, with councillors deciding in January which services to target.
Council leader Dick Walsh, a veteran independent who resumed control of the Lochgilphead-based after the collapse of SNP administrations following the 2012 elections, said: “We would like to do all that our communities want their council to do for them, but drastically reduced funding means that this just is not possible.
“We must make savings. At the same time we must also continue investing in building a prosperous future for Argyll and Bute.
“We need therefore to make choices about the work we do. We need to identify what is most important now, and for our future prosperity. We need to decide how we can make best use of the resources we have.”
The consultation is available at www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/forms/planning-our-future-public-consultation
Marvellous; all these amazing savings and efficiencies are possible; why aren’t they already implemented and why has ABC been run so badly for however long?