With a decision due next month on plans for unprecedented cuts in public services across Argyll and Bute, radical new proposals have been put forward.
The Reform Group is only three-strong, so the mathematics of winning a vote in the 36-member council are against them.
But their plans are certainly more radical and strategic than the council administration’s own proposals, which would cut £18m and shed hundreds of jobs but have been pointedly criticised by Audit Scotland.
At the heart of the proposals by Cllrs Michael Breslin, Vivien Dance and Bruce Marshall is a return to more local democracy, with almost all powers being transferred from the council headquarters at Lochgilphead to its four area committees.
This could dramatically reduce travel costs across the council’s sprawling area, as well as empowering local communities who find democracy in Lochgilphead – 65 miles away from Helensburgh or Kilcreggan – rather less than local, as has been argued before on this website.
Significant investment in videoconferencing is proposed as one of the ways of enabling this, but one significant hurdle could lie in the way – the Local Government Boundary Commission plans changes which would split the Rosneath Peninsula from Helensburgh and divide Cowal.
If that goes ahead – despite overwhelming local opposition – the future of the council’s four current area committees would be at risk, but Cllr Breslin described it as ‘a difficulty but not an insurmountable one’.
He added: “There would need to be a re-thinking of how you would make the affected areas work.
“Right now I can’t offer any solution but I think we can be inventive enough to come to one after consideration and discussion.”
The trio say their proposals will save £10m within a year, then further cutbacks will essentially be delegated to local decision-makers, including school ‘clusters’.
Wheelie bin collections would still be cut back to once every three weeks, but several high profile proposed cuts are specifically ruled out – the closure of 43 public toilets, cuts in music instructors, higher parking charges, street cleaning cutbacks and 20% increases in burial and cremation charges.
There is no such specific assurance about school crossing patrols though: “The school clusters will be able to come up with proposals and these may include school crossing patrols but we don’t know that yet,” said Cllr Breslin.
“What we have done is ask what the costs would be of replacing school crossing patrols with user-operated pedestrian lights. That information would go to the school clusters to consider if there is a case for lights, or not.”
So how will the cuts be made? Populist measures include a £600,000 reduction in education management costs, cuts in additional payments to councillors and questioning the council’s membership of COSLA – other proposals are listed in this document: budget-paper-20-january-16
One of the few strategic options in the council administration’s cuts package would see libraries, swimming pools, gyms and public halls being taken over by a newly-formed trust.
The new proposals don’t go this far, but do suggest that adult literacy, school libraries and public libraries are all lumped together and opened up to public tenders.
The council’s reserves would be used to encourage business development and for £400,000-worth of one-off improvements to towns and villages, as well as tackling the decline of the area’s historic buildings.
The proposal states: “There has been a reluctance in the past to serve improvement notices on properties that have fallen into disrepair.
“That reluctance has generally been founded on the costs of doing so, particularly if the improvements have to be carried out by the council.”
A ‘nominal’ £600,000 from reserves is suggested for this – but if the council is tackle private property owners or the MoD it should first be confident that its own house is in order, as was far from the case with Cove Burgh Hall or the Templeton Library.
Just to repeat – the political mathematics of Argyll and Bute Council are very much against these proposals, and some of the ideas would certainly mean job losses and be far from popular.
Some of the cuts proposed are still eye-watering – 17% from social services and seven-figure sums from education – and job losses would still be widespread.
But with the clock ticking until cuts are agreed, and silence over attempts by MSPs and an MP to intervene with the SNP government in Edinburgh, despite a second meeting with council leadership earlier this month, these proposals form a marked contrast with the salami-slicing proposed by the council leadership.
Is there any chance of someone pressing the pause button? No, thought not…
Leave a Reply