I thought that the Greenock Telegraph's coverage of the Council's financial challenges was on the whole fair and well-balanced.
One point I would take issue with however is the statement that there is "a huge black hole" in the Council's finances.
There is no such black hole. Indeed we actually budgeted for a surplus in the current financial year.
The savings target that has been identified is based on anticipated reductions in our funding from the Scottish Government over the next few years. Rather than waiting for official confirmation of these reductions - which won't be received until towards the end of this year - we are acting now to give us as much time as possible to manage the required reductions in the Council's expenditure.
The challenges faced by Inverclyde are no different from those faced by the other 31 local authorities in Scotland.
We rely on the Scottish Government for the vast majority of our income. With this funding due to be reduced we have no option but to cut our cloth accordingly since we are legally obliged to produce a balanced budget.
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As a taxi driver who contracts for IDC, some of the school buildings I go in and out dont seem to be in a bad a state of repair that required the building of new schools.I agree St Columbas,Clune park Greenock high and some others were probable beyond repair. But schools like Overton,St Lawrences,And to a certain degree Notre Dame,were not near derelict buildings needing all this investment.Surely when this economic crisis started some of these projects could have been cancelled. The management(PPP) costs paid for the new Notre Dame could have been avoided.I agree that in recession we need to build ,but few of those building the new schools are Inverclyde workers,the majority are from out of town.
ReplyDeleteI think if you visited some of the new schools and saw the difference you might have a different opinion.
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