£10m cuts confirmed by Argyll and Bute Council – 82 jobs go, some services transferred to charitable trust

Unprecedented cuts, totalling more than £10m, have been approved by Argyll and Bute Council.

Council tax bills will once again remain the same for householders, but with the council’s income from the Scottish Government slashed, a wide range of services will be reduced or completely stopped in the next financial year.

After today’s meeting at Lochgilphead the council released a 2,600-word statement listing all the services which had been cut, as well as those which survived after a public consultation exercise.

The council says that the equivalent of 82 full-time equivalent jobs will be lost – far fewer than had been predicted for several weeks,  but the impact of the cuts will still be severe and widespread.

That statement is attached at the end of this story as a PDF, but the cuts which have been confirmed include:

• A new trust will be created to run council-owned halls, swimming pools and libraries, with staff being transferred to this trust – these staff are not included in the council’s job loss total.
• Higher fees for music tuition and a 20% reduction in the number of instructors
• School librarians in secondary schools ‘no longer provided’
• School crossing patrols will be cut – but only at lunchtime and where there is already an electronic crossing in place
• Household rubbish will only be collected every three weeks, although recycling collections will be fortnightly
• Burial charges to increase by 20%, and cremation charges by 14%
• Car park charges will rise from 80p to £1*
• Flower beds being returned to grass, with some areas that are already grass returning to ‘meadow/natural growth

The closure of 43 public toilets was rejected, as was a 20% cut in classroom assistants.

Dick Walsh, leader of the coalition of independent, Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors which runs the council after the collapse of SNP administrations, said: ““The decisions we have made today mean that, despite significant financial challenges, we can continue to deliver a huge range of services.

“We can provide much of what our communities have told us they want. We can invest in regeneration and the prosperity Argyll and Bute deserves.

“This is a time of unprecedented challenge for local government. Drastically reduced funding means we had a savings target of over £10m in 2016/17 alone. This means change.

“This budget is about making change work for Argyll and Bute.

“Careful financial planning, delivering efficiencies in our work, and investing over the past two years in the core services people have told us matter– education, supporting vulnerable people, roads and infrastructure – together mean that we are in a better position than many other councils.”

The full council statement is here: Council budget statement

• Car parking is free in Lochgilphead, where the council is based.