Tomorrow Council officers will unveil a package of savings proposals for Councillors to consider when setting the Council's budgets for 2011/12 and 2012/13.
The financial challenges facing Inverclyde and all other Councils and public bodies are well known. We have been working for the last 18 months or so to identify efficiency savings in order to address these challenges but we have also realised for some time that efficiency savings alone will not close the budget gap.
The savings package to be announced tomorrow will therefore contain a good number of proposals that will involve a reduction in service.
I should stress however that these proposals are options for Councillors to consider.
Officers have estimated that of the £10.9m worth of savings they have identified Councillors will need to agree to just over £6m, unless we come up with alternative savings ourselves, to balance the books over the next two years.
This will require some very tough decisions of Members.
My priority as Council Leader will be to limit the impact on frontline services and in particular services to the most vulnerable in our community. I will also be looking to ensure that we continue with our investment programmes in our schools and leisure facilities.
There is no getting away from the fact however that we will have to cut funding in a number of areas. We will look to manage the impact on staff and service users as sentively as we can.
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Are the proposals put to Councillors the only options that they will consider? Or are we likely to see a raft of alternative proposals from the Lib Dems, such as halt the school estates programme and spend 10m on a car park?
ReplyDeleteCouncillors are free to come up with alternative proposals of their own.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it was the SNP Group that proposed the £10m car park last year.