A BUDGET to protect the Borders economy. That, said Scottish Borders Council leader David Parker, is the headline he would like to see in this week's Southern Reporter as he unveiled a revenue spending programme of £269million for 2010/11.
But that tongue-in-cheek optimism cannot disguise the fact the region’s largest employer is having to make major efficiencies across all departments in a bid to protect front-line services and avoid the need for compulsory job losses.
With a recen
t survey indicating widespread discontent among council staff at a major internal restructuring of work practices, morale is unlikely to improve.
In cash terms, the spending programme is actually up £5.4million on last year, despite another freeze on Council Tax. But Mr Parker said maintaining staff and services had been “particularly challenging” because of new spending pressures amounting to £13.7million.
These include pay increases (£5million), inflation for utilities etc (£1.2million), meeting manifesto commitments from the Scottish Government (£1.4million), rates and repayments on new schools (£1.2million), and increased contributions to police and fire services (£500,000).
In that context, the resultant budget appears relatively painless, although neither Mr Parker nor Councillor Neil Calvert, executive member for finance, pulled any punches about the impact of swingeing cuts in public spending, at UK and Scotland levels, over the next four years.
“Storm clouds are gathering and we must move forward in sharing services with other public bodies, including NHS Borders and those of other councils,” said Mr Parker, predicting that, whoever wins the General Election, yearly public spending would be cut by 4 per cent.
“There is no way round this,” said Mr Calvert, revealing the budget management group which he chairs has started discussions with partner organisations about pooling resources. “If we don’t do it, the Scottish Government will force our hand,” he added.
The new budget contains many measures revealed in TheSouthern in December.
Charges levied by the council will go up by at least 2 per cent, with frozen meals at home for the elderly costing £2.60, up 9.7per cent.
In education, free fruit in schools will be scrapped to save £100,000, school meals will go up by 15p and early-retirement packages will be offered to experienced teachers occupying promoted posts as part of the Tranforming Children’s Services rationalisation programme.
The council will seek to cut class sizes for P1-3 by taking on 12 new (and less expensive) teachers and will introduce free school meals for the same age group at 14 schools in “deprived areas”, the identity of which has yet to be revealed.
