Highland Council's budget rubber stamped
HIGHLAND Council’s £602 million budget for the next 12 months has been rubber stamped at a meeting in Inverness today – despite members attacking the controversial Council Tax freeze.
Two independent councillors claimed the Scottish Government’s continued freeze on the charge which is used to fund the council was not benefiting the poor and was impacting on local democracy in the region.
The Independent-Liberal Democrat-Labour administration’s proposals on how its finances will be spent during 2012/13 were formally approved.
It means that £650,000 will be spent to establish a new pupil support assistant post in primary schools across the region to replace the current classroom assistant and learning support auxiliary jobs.
The cash will see the equivalent of a further 26 full-time jobs created. It brings an end to a tumultuous year for the authority regarding the issue, which saw it come under heavy fire for its original intention in February 2011 to axe 344 mostly part-time jobs – the equivalent of 158 full-time posts – to save £1.5 million.
Other expenditure given the green light was £1 million to go towards keeping elderly people “fit, healthy and safe” in their homes and £500,000 on training more adults to provide foster care and adopt children with additional needs, half of which will go towards supporting disabled youngsters living at home.
The Council Tax freeze was also agreed for the fifth year in a row and so was a rent increase of 53p a week for local authority housing tenants.
It was the final budget before the local government elections in May.
Budget leader Councillor David Alston confirmed no cuts were needed and said it was down to forward planning over a three-year period. However, he warned that the incoming councillors would have to find savings of almost £40 million between 2013 and 2015 - which would mean less staff working for the region’s biggest employer in the coming years.
“It has been a tough time, there have been quite a number of disagreements and arguments along the way,” said Councillor Alston (Black Isle). “I think this is a time to look forward, not back and I am pleased where we are today.”
He said the budget included £3 million of “preventative spending”, including £200,000 to help primary school headteachers with their management roles, and said it was an aspect of the finances which would become key in the future.
“Preventative spending is about spending money early on so the problems don’t cost more to fix later on,” he said.
Opposition leader Councillor Drew Hendry (Aird and Loch Ness) of the SNP said it was broadly supportive of the budget. “We would be, we argued for most of these proposals,” he said.
However, independent councillors Graeme Smith (Wick) and Donald Cameron (Fort William and Ardnamurchan) both attacked the government’s continued Council Tax freeze which is now entering its fifth year.
Councillor Smith claimed it meant Highland Council was merely a “plaything” for the government because it was let with no choice but to accept the policy and knock-on effects on budgets.
“Councillor Alston is right, it is a time to look forward but this budget shows how much that the council is governed by Holyrood,” he said. “We are administrating rather than governing locally. I look forward to when the Council Tax freeze will thaw.”
Councillor Cameron said the local authority could not go on finding savings because of the freeze. “We have been told quite firmly today there is going to be job losses and the council are being held to ransom,” he said. “The Council Tax freeze is another attack on local democracy.”
Councillor Cameron called for the incoming administration in May to campaign for the freeze to be scrapped and claimed it only helped the better off in society.
