The Kintyre Forum

Opposition and coalition members of Argyll and Bute Council made history at today's (14th February) 2008/09 budget meeting when they joined forces and unanimously agreed to freeze Council Tax at the current Band D price of £1,178.
This unique situation came as members also agreed to allocate £26 million to Argyll and Bute's roads, £17 million to the school estate, £1 million for elderly care and £1 million for street lighting.

This is the first budget since Argyll and Bute Council became an Independent/SNP coalition in May 2007.

Council Leader Dick Walsh touched on the achievements of the Council so far and his aspirations for 2008 and beyond.

He spoke about the Council's Corporate Plan and Statement of Intent, published in September last year, which set out the Council's goals and objectives until 2011 and also link into the principles and priorities of the Scottish Government.

"These priorities are to be safer and stronger; healthier; smarter; wealthier and fairer; and greener," he said. "Looking back at our approach to our preparation for our corporate strategy, our Statement of Intent and our whole approach to our business, we are well placed to achieve both our aims and the objectives set by Government."

Before moving on to the detail of the budget, Councillor Walsh summed up by saying: "Our budget continues the investment in the people of Argyll and Bute, for the young – in terms of education, for the elderly and disadvantaged – in terms of services such as social work, for providing a range of leisure and recreational activities and for providing appropriate infrastructure and support to enable our economy to grow."

The Council's Depute Leader and Argyll and Bute SNP group leader, Councillor Robert Macintyre, said: "At the first Independet/SNP colaition budget we have been able to set zero increase in Council Tax. This reflects the position we are now in where we get greater recognition for the Council in the new Scottish Government.

"I welcome the fact that our Scottish Government colleagues have assisted with the decision we were able to make by the abolishing of ring-fencing, enabling us to provide additional resources for our roads and our elderly and the most vulnerable people in our communities."

Councillor Morton, leader of the Argyll and Bute Liberal Democrat group, said: "I was delighted to be able to influence the budget process as we work towards this concise budget and I welcome the focus on core services like care of the elderly, roads and street lighting.

"There will be some difficult decisions to take in the next few years but I think this is a good start today."

Councillor Gary Mulvaney, leader of the Argyll and Bute Conservative group, said: "I welcome the opportunity for the Conservatives to be involved and I feel that working together has given the people of Argyll and Bute a much better outcome.

"This budget has a real focus on service delivery and on the bread and butter issues that matter to people. The additional monies into care of the elderly, roads and transportation and school estates, will help to deliver better service for the people of Argyll and Bute."

Thanks John. Beat me to it.

I read an article on Monday (can't remember where) saying as a result of Glasgow City Council's Council Tax remaining the same there will be a loss of jobs. Will this be the same in Argyll & Bute?

Non-filling of posts as identified in the single status process will shed approximately 150 jobs across the area over 3 years, it is unlikely that will be any compulsorily redundancies.

Any chance they could actually spend some of the £26m roads budget south of Kennacraig ?

We can expect to get our share of the enhanced capital roads expenditure, but don't expect miracles over night, £26M might sound like a lot but that is over 3 years. This will only address the historic under funding of roads budget inherited from the previous administration and is thanks to the concordat drawn up between the government and the council.

To make real inroads into the backlog of work needing done more funding will have to be found.

Jock Strap wrote:I read an article on Monday (can't remember where) saying as a result of Glasgow City Council's Council Tax remaining the same there will be a loss of jobs. Will this be the same in Argyll & Bute?

The loss of jobs as stated by the Herald is not actually a direct result of the council tax freeze. Glasgow Council have actually frozen council tax in the previous 2 years but in addition this year the Govt were actually giving a sweetener to councils for freezing the tax as well as taking away the ring fencing imposed by the previous Labour administration so they now can spend money as they see fit and not how how the Government sees fit to spend it. So this year Glasgow Council has more money to spend than in the previous years. The job cuts are as a result of general efficiencies and have been looked at for years. The Herald instead of reporting the facts used the redundancies as a way to attack the SNP led government - usual guff from the Wendy Alexander loving broadsheets