FORTHCOMING BUDGET CHOICES PUBLIC CONSULTATION
STATEMENT FROM THE SNP GROUP, COMHAIRLE NAN EILEAN SIAR
It is the responsibility of any Council administration to bring forward a balanced budget and it is the responsibility of the opposition to scrutinise, agree or amend it.
The SNP Group believe that the consultation is seriously compromised because Councillors have already indicated where the cuts should fall prior to any consultation.
Cllr Rae Mackenzie stated “We have serious concerns that councillors – and soon members of the public – have not been presented with the full picture. What is being presented for consideration amounts to approximately 7% of the Comhairle spend and in the Chamber I’ve asked in the past why the remaining 93% was not being offered up for review and so is being hidden.
SNP Group Leader Cllr Donald Manford added “The public deserve better. If they are being asked for their opinion they have a right to be better informed and they are right to be wary of such consultations having seen what they amounted to over school closures and the previous budget setting process.
Cllr Philip McLean added “The Comhairle are simply going to be seeking public endorsement of pre-determined cuts. Like our fellow Councillors, we have looked through the proposed cost savings put forward in great detail but there is another way. We are disappointed that the leadership has not come forward with more innovative solutions to saving money – like further spend to save proposals, or using capital, or having projects waiting in the wings to attract additional funding. Other avenues must be looked at.”
Sent from my iPad
…and which element of the other 93% – boldly hidden in the Comhairle annual budget book published on the web – would the SNP cut? Salaries? Councillors allowances? School provision?
Sorry guys, but you are wondering aimlessly around the Council building without a formulated policy. How about complaining about the cuts in the Council Budget that brought us here in the first place?
Typical of our council, pick on those public services which suits Campbell and Dokus. The public consultation will be the usual whitewash where it is going to happen regardless.
Donald M you must support the council fuel strategy of going to Angus Campbell’s etc.
@Open – the Director of Finance as s.93 Officer should be demanding that the purchasing of fuel be reviewed to see how much could be saved by using Gordon Diesel.
Unfortunately Campbell runs the council and the Finance Director does as he is told. The 7% which the full council considered for cuts were broken out in detail by the council employees. The 93% which was not considered was not. To do as you suggested with the 93%, would have been extremely difficult as the necessary details were not available. The cuts were cherry picked by Campbell/
Daft Minded you do speak a load of bull.
This maneuver has embarrassed the SNP group.
With the independence vote coming, this lot will damage the chances with their childish antics.
Cherry picked, you make me laugh. You obviously know nothing about how the council works.
Maybe you’re right, maybe you’re wrong or maybe you’re another Labour nutter who has no idea about politics. I’m a unionist, so it’ll please me.
The CnES should now initiate legal action to recover the £10m overpaid to Scottish Fuels in their rip-off of island customers by hugely inflated prices at the pumps over the years (as alleged by the FFS group) – at one fell swoop the Comhairle savings of £5.7m will be met at no cost to essential public services, and a wee bit left over to develop and improve services to our elderly and most vulnerable. Choices about “eating or heating” are repulsive and perverse in this day and age.
OM/Pavlov, it is past time that the OFT made a serious attempt at crushing this anti-competitive parcel of rogues once and for all time. I am not holding my breath, but there is no doubt that something very extraordinary has happened in the sale of fuel, retail and wholesale, in the past few weeks which requires investigation and punitive action against any one who has been involved in any wrongdoing