East Ayrshire Council swing the axe in annual budget

Jan 22 2010 by Clair Fullarton, Kilmarnock Standard

HARD-UP East Ayrshire Council is planning to axe services in a bid to save £7 million.

Hardly a single department in the council will be unaffected by the swingeing cuts which will start to take effect from April.

The local authority is being pressed to make urgent savings because of new public spending constraints.

Councils up and down the country are being forced to swing the axe due to a 12 per cent funding reduction by central government over the next three years.

Among the proposals being considered in East Ayrshire is an end to the annual fireworks display, which regularly attracted crowds of 40,000 to Kilmarnock’s Kay Park, saving £20,000.

As already reported in the Standard, the management structure of the council is under review, and savings in the top tier – retirement packages for directors Elizabeth Morton, Bill Stafford and Graham Short – could be as much as £325,000 in direct salary costs.

Frontline jobs could go in various departments of the council, including finance, education and leisure services.

Cleaners, lighting staff, switchboard operators, members’ services and museums staff, community wardens, car park attendants and pest controllers could also face the axe.

Overtime bans would also be put in place, in areas such as roads and transportation, leisure services and the community wardens scheme, saving almost £130,000.

Other cost cutting measures would see the reduction in external foster placements which would save the council £185,000.

Other ‘highlights’ are:

lReducing grants to community organisations, including the Galleon, saving £38,550

lRemoving entire budget for foreign language students, £51,150

lThe introduction of charges for music tuition, £63,610

lIncreasing school meals by 10 per cent, £124,300

lRemoving council subsidy from the meals on wheels service, £40,000

lCharging for community alarms and home care during the festive period, £20,000

lStopping the CATCH walking scheme, £35,190

lReducing promoted posts in secondary and special schools, £250,700

lReducing cleaning hours at various sites, £20,000

lThe reduction of the finance department by 15 posts, £350,000

The proposals have been put on the council’s website for the public to view and comment on, and the feedback received during this time will be used when drawing up the final budget on February 10.

Also being discussed by the council is the council rent prices, which are set to go up by £1.66 a week over the year.

This would mean a weekly rent of £50.86, which still makes East Ayrshire the cheapest landlords of the three Ayrshire local authorities.

A council spokesman said: “It is projected that full year savings of £7m will be required to be made in 2010/11 to ensure that a balanced budget can be set.

“While future year allocations have yet to be announced by the Scottish Government, there is little doubt that these will also be exceptionally tight, with the requirement to make further cuts of at around £30m in aggregate over the next four years.

“To achieve this we need to continue to seek ways of reducing the £7m budget gap that we face for 2010/11 and the likely £30m gap for the ensuing four years – this is a significant challenge but one that we need to address together.

“Departmental chief officers have constructed draft 2010/11 budgets for their services and the combined council wide draft budget was approved for consultation by the council Cabinet on 13 January.

“Given the level of savings necessary it is clear that all areas of expenditure need to be examined to ensure that resources are targeted at maintaining and developing essential services.

“There are no plans for compulsory redundancies but management structures will be reviewed and the overall number of employees reduced through voluntary arrangements.

“Given the level of savings we need to make it is vital that we do all we can to protect frontline services and the expenditure that is desirable but not essential such as the fireworks display needs to be subject to review.”