53 thoughts on “SNP statement on comhairle cuts”

1. Can anyone explain how they are going to make savings of £1,000,000 by using e learning

2. I remember whan Labour used to fight for the poor, That was a long long time ago before they became corrupted.

3. So basically the SNP want to retain all the things everyone, including Labour and Independent councillors, would want to retain if we lived in a perfect world.
   No representatives, whatever their allegiances, would surely consider any of the above measures if ‘sensible’ alternatives were available.
   Are they suggesting that some services/possible cost saving exercises (cuts at directorate level?) are being deliberately kept off the budget agenda due to some conspiritorial clique to which they are not privy?
   Labour and the Independents are the bad guys then….the SNP all ride on white horses with pockets full of gold?
   Orica for me, then….a man with brains, charisma, personality and an a PHD in economics.
   Give him the reins now!!

4. Sammy , that must have been the same time that the SNP were anti- NATO, anti- Monarchy, anti -Trident, anti-British Pound, anti- foreign (English) bases on our soil, and more anti’s than anyone would care to remember. I am afraid that the SNP will no longer fit the bill for a radical party that will lead us bravehearts ( and there are a few of us left) out of our thralldom. Oh for the days of Donnie Stewart, an uncompromising politician who dominated the Scottish political scene for a generation. We wont see his likes again.

5. Well this is a quite ridiculous (if entirely fascinating) piece of political posturing. Have they come up with one item on which they’d be prepared to support a cut? One solitary item? Surely that’s not too much to ask?

6. On second thoughts, maybe it is too much to ask – at least until after 10.00 tomorrow.

7. not a qualified business brain amongst them!
   They are the Labour party #2. A bunch of ‘LEFTIES!’

8. Who caused this disaster ? Face the truth, it was Labour. Why did they cause the disaster ? Simply greed. How many former trade union people are in the shadow cabinet ? None How many went to school with Cameron ?
   Most of them. Why does Miliband tell us he just like Thatcher ? Simple he’s just another Tory. Why does the Labour Party want to give Thatcher a state funeral ? Simple, everyone of you is a Tory.

   Kilty that’s some rubbish you are spouting. You need to go back to who ever it is that tells you what to say. Maybe you would be better just beating a drum.

9. Of course it is too much to ask the SNP group to earn their crust and make an intelligent attempt at tabling an alternative, fully costed, balanced budget instead of opposing everything and offering nothing. Their masters in far off Edinburgh managed that successfully for years, then once they got into power cut council funding, froze council tax ( even for their rich friends) and cut health board funding whilst giving free prescriptions to one and all ( even for their rich friends). Maybe the SNP group will slash and burn then hail it as increased spending a la Russell and Salmond? I am reliably informed by SNP friends that they have a massive war chest put by to spend in the lead up to the referendum which could be used to alleviate some of the cuts imposed on councils for the next four years.

10. They also pledge their support for
    - better weather
    - more money for everyone
    - a rainbow in every garden
    - a sprinkle of pixie dust to solve the Council Budget problems.

    They oppose
    - challenging the SNP Government
    - cutting anything
    - making hard decisions

11. Nice to see the Point led local Labour Party rattled. Yep there is a pot of gold set aside for Independence. It never belonged to Holyrood and it never belonged to the SNP. It belongs to the “YES” campaign. You people will soon be set free from your chains, free from your London masters. Independence will stop us having to send our money to London to pay for Thatcher’s funeral. We won’t need to worry about the lack of money to pay for our NHS or Council.
    You lot are a Tory to a man stealing from the poor.

    Monkey you must have some eyesight when you can see Barra from Garrabost.

12. Sammy, Chaz, Subsidee, Gugug et al, please accept my sincere apologies for distubing you, I did not take the lunar phase into account, so I will refrain from disturbing you any further in case I drive you over the edge. I will make you a further promise, once the SNP group stop hiding and come out with a detailed budget, spelling out how they propose to make the cuts demanded by Government, then I will support any part of their proposals that make sense. I also think, that if they were clever, they could present a reasonable budget that would attract support from some of the non- aligned councillors. Over to you SNP group.

13. And what on earth do you have against Point and Barra? I was in Point once, with a friend from London, who has a house in Swordale which he used to rent out, but we never went as far as Garabost

14. Monkey you appear to be a bit rattled which I understand. No I’m not all the people you think I am, who cares. I don’t care about labour, snp, tory liberal, real tory, ukip or whatever, i just want fairness. We are being robbed blind by those in the south. The red nutters on our islands think its great to be treated like trash by their masters. There a lot of people in England who are suffering the same as us. The red nutters don’t know what the red means nor do they care. Talk about being sold out, they are selling us out big time. Anyway you keep look at your wall picture of Tony Blair in your Garrabost front room.

15. Monkey, only thing I have against Point is that they have sent a Klingon to stand in Lochs, what a cheek! However, I have nothing against people in Barra or anywhere else for that matter. I had high hopes for Ray with his vast business experience, when he came back, until I was reminded by an old SY stalwart that he was regarded as hopeless when he was last in the council. We live in hope that he can still put the figures on his list and take us out of this mess.

16. Fully agree with the above

17. Most of Point had never heard of Orica (Free Willy, they call him in Bayble), until he stood for the council and decided to do a Jehova’s Witness style walkabout. The clatter of doors slamming shut drove all of the resident geese across Broad Bay.
    Ray’s ‘vast business experience’ consisted of selling tweed to people who wanted to buy it. Selling it to people who didn’t want to buy it, proved more difficult, hence the downfall of Stickie’s Mill.
    The last Labour government to blame for the global recession?
    SNP saving all the money for a pre- independence war-chest?
    The combined IQ of local councillors enough to get us out of this mess?
    We are all, to put it mildly, “Donald Ducked”.

18. Poor undermilkwood / or donald duced can’t see or hear because of the sand, stop burying your head. Did you not hear the great miliband saying sorry for the economic mess. The only labour group who don’t believe it is the point nutters.
    No brown didn’t do it, it was big boys who done it and they ran away . Yes undermilkwood youv;e been donald ducked by your own pals.

19. Any minority political grouping has a mandate to oppose … this is the function of the present group of only six SNP c’llors (vs the 24 others at present). They have no mandate to decide on cuts to deprive the most vulnerable of our citizens the basic life-line services to which they are entitled. Labour in opposition at Westminster oppose the Tories and Lib Dems who hold the power and the purse strings. Labour and Tories at Holyrood oppose the SNP Govt. The SNP Govt opposes most of the policies of Westminster, hence the need to pursue Independence. The SNP c’llors of the Comhairle are marginalised and given short shrift. They are right to wash their hands of anything at all to do with cutting services, and are to be applauded for their proposal to mitigate the effects of cuts of nearly £6m over the next two years by using BCCI money (dividend) and reducing contingencies. Why do we need to set a budget for TWO years (?) – with some synicism I say probably to ensure c’llors are not having to face the wrath of the public once again at this time next year to address and decide on yet more cuts. Better to leave it for another two years… by which time the screw will be turning even tighter. The national Budget deficit is escalating and according to the Chancellor will be with us until at least 2018 (subject to review and amendment). The present dose of medicine will not cure the patient – more radical and severe surgery to follow. Perhaps our Director of Finance should be buying Lottery tickets?

20. Pavlov I agree with much of what you say. The problem locally is that the reds can’t see this. It’s about point scoring for them, not about keeping a roof over their heads. The problem with Westminster is that Labour would be doing much the same as the coalition. By forcing the burden onto the poor is stiffling jobs. What does Westminster do, give the rich a tax reduction and expect the poor to pick up the new deficit. Independence is a last resort and we are just about at the crossroads. This is not about supporting yellow and red teams, it’s about survival.

21. Dear Rae

    Thank you for your letter with your Christmas wish-list which arrived in Lapland today .
    As you know I’m committed to making everyone as happy as possible at this time of year but I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you this year. Regrettably even Santa has to make tough choices at times of austerity so I’m afraid I can’t help you out this year as the kids toys come first.
    Thanks for still believing in me and the tooth fairy and hope you enjoy the rest of the full moon !

    KIND REGARDS
    SANTA
    P.S. May I also give you a small bit of advice.
    It’s not always best when you come into a wee bit of money to blow it at the first opportunity . It’s always better to be careful and put some aside for the next rainy day !

22. It was a month ago that the heads of each department were asked to identify what they felt was the most painless 10% to cut (rightly so, it’s there job, they are paid to manage the budgets so therefore logically should know best). They then passed the information to the Councilors to choose the 6% they wanted to bring forward to the public for consolation, along with the whole council spending budget ( again, rightly so that’s why we have them to make decisions).

    It was then the SNP refused to put in black and white what 6% they thought should be highlighted to the public for cutting as they wanted to go to the public meeting and give each member of the public the whole budget and ask the public to tell them what to cut. (That’s leadership for you).

    A month on you would think that they would have least have done what they were expecting the public to do at the public meetings, but no the best they can come up with is to go back to the original 10% and tell us what they would save.

    So to recap they refused to tell us what they wanted to cut from the 10% but are able to tell us what to save and have not come up with any cuts themselves.

23. Thank you Crofter, that explains a lot, I think I now know where the SNP group are heading with this, they have no intention of spelling out in any great detail what they would cut, and they will oppose all the cuts, one by one! I dont know how long my neighbour will last as leader, given the public humiliation he suffered at the hands of the MSP at the cuts meeting here a fortnight ago!!

24. The Crofter needs to get real! The SNP group are the few who choose to stand up for the rights of the electorate – too bad they are not greater in number! Why should they be dictated to by the Labour/Independent(?) group as to what proportion of the budget is to be considered for cuts? Only less than 8% of a budget in excess of £110m (although if over two years more likely a budget of £220m). Listen to what Jessie MacNeil had to say at the consultation meeting held on Barra re cuts to Community Transport, and the 30+ service users of Tagsa Uibhist who attended the consultation at Carinish – the “silent majority” are wakening up from their slumbers and making their views known. They have most to lose. The Scottish Govt has substantially increased the amount given to LA’s under the heading of “Change Fund for Older People” (to nearly £600m for the life of the parliament). Where is this money being spent (in addition to the £120k on digital pens!). I think the older people would rather have transport to access services and tell community nurses where they can stick their digital pens! It’s all about choices – what is essential and what may be disirable. This is what the SNP group are emphasising.

25. I’m confused as to what the SNP guys think they are about – their job is not to oppose the rest of the council, their job is to represent their constituents.

26. You innocent, Eddie. They’re local politicians. Their ‘job’ is to promote and protect themselves.

27. Okay, let’s all support a policy of “NO cuts” and refuse to support any such proposals.

    Just how do the Council balance the budget?

28. Eddie, the SNP group, by opposing the “rest of the council”, are truly representing their constituents – this is why they were elected (and D Manford with a whopping majority).

29. Everybody is missing the point here. Why should certain peoples decisions not be questioned. Too many people on this blog have accepted that the the cuts which have been identified are the only choice. If you accept that the leader is right without question you will get what you deserve. One of the reasons that you have a fuel problem is that nobody questioned it at the start. Those who support the current choice of cuts through loyality to a party are daft. This includes Labour and SNP people. The time to question the cuts is now, tomorrow will be too late. There will be council directors who will have identified cuts which suits their personal work agenda. You either question what is proposed or just accept whatever you are given

30. Visitor – I’m afraid its you thats missing the point. There is indeed a valid case to question the cuts , but at national government level. Investment and growth to create jobs is certainly a good way to get out of recession faster. However it is not a valid strategy in local government. That s because the SNP controlled Scottish Government is cutting the allocation to local councils so there has to be cuts. There is no way round it because the council will be getting less money..
    Therefore for anyone to question the need for cuts makes them just seem daft. Maybe an anonymous troll like Visitor can get away with it without exposing themselves as a clown . Good luck if thats what you want to do .
    . At the public meeting last week the SNP councilors looked and sounded like a bunch of old women with Rae mackenzie as their mouthpiece . The points he made were petty and and his manner childish .For Rae Mackenzie -a supposedly experienced politician – to campaign against cuts without making it crystal clear where the cash would come from makes him personally look like a complete and utter fool . His credibility is evaporating with every passing day .

31. Iain, you can say what you want about me, it does not change the situation. I find it strange that you think that I’m suggesting that there is no need for cuts. Cuts have to be made whether we like it or not, that is a fact. You will not make the right choice of cuts without questioning the reason for selecting them and if there are other alternatives. As far as I’m led to believe these cuts were selected by the service directors within the council. If you allow these people to make the cuts they will pick areas which are suited to them which are not in the best interest of the people.
    I do not know Rae Mackenzie, I don’t know any councillors, in fact I don’t know many people as I’m here on business. May I say, business which will provide some work here on the island provided the supplier is able and capable. To give visitors abuse does not serve to impress anyone. Obviously your mind is closed on the subjecy of cuts.

32. Thank you “Visitor” for some sanity, as an outsider looking in on these events. There are alternatives, in terms of reducing the severity of the cuts as propounded by the SNP, and also by taking a much more comprehensive and detailed examination of the TOTAL Comhairle budget. Why consider only less than 10% of a total budget of £117m for cuts, as chosen by the Labour/Independent C’llors? As our visitor rightly says, these cuts have been put there by officers (Budget Briefings to C’llors) who will have their own preferences and agendas. The SNP group also wish to see fundamental departmental restructuring – departmental heads of service may not be too enamoured with this prospect, but it should be considered. Lateral and innovative thinking is what is now required. At least the SNP group work to a party manifesto, as published at the May election – do the Independent group of C’llors have a manifesto? Are they held accountable to anything?

33. Well there you go, Pavlov. I repeat what I said earlier. Would you give us one (1) hard cut by which you’d stand? Just one?

34. Pavlov, I don’t want to get caught up in this petty party brawl. What I would expect in the event of a party adopting selected cuts that all alternatives have been examined. Unfortunately party politics play a major influencing factor and some cuts maybe for the wrong reasons. This applies to all political parties. It would be wrong to accept council officers proposals without question. In fact, it would be wrong if all cuts are accepted without some being rejected. It would be very poor reflection on the reviewers as the council officers will have their own agenda. This is human nature. This is not applicable if the council officers have been given prior directions. In the case of a council this is plain old politics. In the case of where there is an opposition party I would expect their choices to be different. As like the ruling party, they too will have (justifiable) cuts and political cuts. The last thing I would expect would be agreement by all parties. An unhealthy situation and worrying.
    Businesses are faced with similar challenges and internal politics exist. Unlike a council if a company gets it wrong they go out of business and cease trading.

35. Our businessman “visitor” and maybe even Donald, will find some interesting conclusions from these stats re weekly unit costs of residential care, comparing costs of council run homes and costs in the independent/private sector:

    CnES Ardseilach Care Home ……………………. £1390 per week
    CnES Homes for the Elderly ……………………… £992 per week
    Bethesda Nursing Home ………………………….. £640 per week
    Leverburgh Care Home ……………………………. £510 per week
    Blar Buidhe Care Home ………………………….. £558 per week

    ie the average weekly cost of council-run accommodation is £1191 per week.
    The average cost in the independent sector is £570 per week, a difference of £621 per bed per week!! This equates to an annual difference in cost for one resident, of £32,292. Is it not therefore surprising that the recent proposals for council cuts is a reduction in the number of beds purchased from the private sector, saving £206,000!! There is a cruel irony in this so-called “saving”. Would it not be smarter thinking to hand over all council- run care homes to the private/independent sector? Instead, as I understand, the Comhairle is planning to build more homes (and presently rebuilding Harris House). This policy needs to be questioned. As I said earlier, lateral thinking, and fundamental review of all existing expenditure. On the basis of say 100 residential care home beds, savings in the region of £2,194,400.00 would be achievable (maybe not in the first year)! Yes, over two million pounds!
    Privately run care homes are regularly inspected and perform to a high standard, at nearly half the cost. Time to grasp a few nettles and make some bold decisions.

36. I was first to reply to this post where I asked how the council could possibly save £1,000,000 by using e learning. I have not as yet had anyone explain this.
    I dont have much knowledge of council budgets but apparently the budget these cuts refer to is the revenue budget.
    It is questionable if the infrastructure exists in the islands to support the introduction of e learning to the scale required to save £1m. However according to at least one councillor thats ok as the infrastructure could be upgraded out of the capital budget.
    How silly is this! Spend £1m from the capital budget to create/upgrade infrastructure to enable e learning with the sole purpose of cutting the revenue budget.
    As a result of the above many of our childrens education will be put at risk as they will be taught via the telly

37. Pavlov, I see your list, any thought’s I have regarding them I will keep to myself. I refuse to get involved in the crossfire between Labour and SNP. What I would say is that these are the type of questions that need to be asked. Only by doing so will the councill understand whether the costs are justified. It is tiresome laborious work if the correct decisions are to be made.
    As for businessmen, there are none on your council. I suspect your council leader would have severe difficulty surviving in a competive environment.

    I also suspect he likes to get his own way all the time, but I couldn’t say for sure. If this is true it is unhealthy, top businessmen are always prepared to trade. I’m making this judgement using the limited information I have which does not make it true. This said I still don’t consider him much of a businessman.

38. @Pavlov

    So the SNP should propose closing/privatising Ardshelliach?

    Here is 100% of the expenditure: http://www.cne-siar.gov.uk/fcr/financialinfo/documents/Budget%20Book%202012-13.pdf. Which bits should be cut?

    Why haven’t the SNP Councillors read this?

39. e’learning is where there are students in various lcampuses connected through a computer network to a central lecturer who presents the lesson. These could be hundreds of miles apart or even further. In the case of schools, you could have classes in Uist and Barra linked to the secondary school in Stornoway . There is only one teacher, who can be located in any of the schools with the others being supervised by a classroom assistant. It allows the council to reduce the number of teachers employed. It is not new, it has operated successfully for over twenty years. Having said this, there are disadvantages.

40. I am well aware what e learning is but that does not explain the savings. I suspect you are right that the savings envisaged are through getting rid of teaching staff but this has not been stated.
    While it is true that e learning is not new for adult education, where a lecturer delivers the same lecture irrespective of the differing needs of the recipients, it has never been used ‘succesfully’ for schools.
    Surely you are not suggesting that a non specialist, classroom assistant is to carry out all the other responsibilities of the classroom teacher other than the imparting of subject knowledge.
    For example: assisting the poorer student, stretching the more able, feedback, discussing achievment, target setting, assessing, informing parents, behaviour management, profiling, to mention but a few.
    I would also suggest that this flies totally in the face of the AIFL strategies demanded in the curriculum for excellence.

41. Opposing the cuts without stating what they would actually cut – other than increasing the pain over the next couple of years by using all the spare cash this year – when it is patently obvious that next year the SNP government will cut the money available to councils again as they pull funds in centrally to try and bribe the undecided over the independence referendum – is not what I would call principled opposition, it is what I would call blatant hypocrisy.
    And before you cybernats started screaming labour drone not listening etc I’m not a tory, labour, lib, green, snp, ukip, scp, or whatever supporter – I’m apolitical – I’ll vote for whatever candidate seems the most honest and most likely to represent the constituents by championing our causes rather than their own.

42. ghillie

    You are quite right. You did query this at the first point. I suspect that this humungous saving was ‘grabbed in gratitude’ by the smoke-filled room.

    Let’s look at it,. Assuming a – say – £250,000 offset for IT infrastructure and appropriate CA staffing, we’re talking well over a million pounds on teaching staff redundancies.

    Robin Bennie (bless his cotton socks) would have required firm details of proposals. The current Director of Finance would probably just eat another chocolate sandwich biscuit (in the meeting) and mumble.

43. Angus B – thanks for this ref to total budget, have a look at page 30, expenditure of £4,282,108 (less income from residents) for 125 care home beds for the elderly. No need for cuts – better to consider who should provide, on basis of “best value”.

44. Pavlov- have a look at the proposals (as I remember) for cutting services to the elderly.

    Ghillie

    My apologies. The proposed elearning cuts – given that we’re now in Month Whatever – would actually amount to some £2 or £3 million pounds in a full year.

    They’re not genuine of course- just a reaction to the simplistic Finance Department – ‘Everyone must cut by X%’ email. If there was merit to the proposal, it would, surely, already have been effected.

45. The Cybernats who insult anonymously , defend the indefensible and adopt the “economics of the infant school” on this column need to wake up.

    They have shed more darkness than light on the solutions /alternative ways that the council can save money have had their fun
    .. HOW ABOUT GETTING BACK TO THE ISSUE
    ….WHY HAVEN’T OUR “16K SNP COUNCILLORS” GIVEN US ANY ALTERNATIVES OTHER THAN “BLOWING WINDFALL GAINS ” .

    They could start by being honest and admitting that ,up till now, they haven’t offered any real alternative to the draft budget that the other councillors were honest enough to put out to consultation before finalising.

    Then they could show a lead by committing themselves to the abolition of the post of the 3-year-old post of Council Leader , offering to take a £3500 cut in their allowances and then give our community the alternative choices they should have given our community in the first place.

    For those of you who are new to the way the Western Isles Scottish National Party “works” !?!
    ….. DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH IN ANTICIPATION OF THEM MAKING ANY POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION SOON !!

46. Bad result expected for SNP today.

47. What do you mean Pentland? It’s St. Andrew’s Day after all, nothing can go wrong in Salmond’s Brave New Scotland!

48. For all your readers Iain, and esp Angus B (not MacNeil!), please note the contribution on page 1 of the Budget Book from the Scottish SNP Govt to Western Isles Council of £100,927,000 (total expenditure £116,920,000). This must be the highest %age contribution of Revenue Support Grant to any of the 32 local authorities in Scotland. Time to show appreciation for an SNP Govt doing its best to mitigate the worst excesses of savage cuts from the ConDem Govt at Westminster.(mopping up after years of Labour).

49. Oh dear, Pavlov. RSG is high because the area is so poor and incomes are amongst the lowest in Scotland, as well as having the additional costs of a low density of population.

    RSG is down very substantially, and the Western Isles had the largest cuts in RSG over the past number of years, imposed by the SNP Government, saved only from more savage reductions by the Floor Mechanism.

    Who’s ringing the bell for you to bark?

50. Pavlov, I note you took 44 minutes from Calum Iain’s post to try and deflect the thread back to national issues.

51. The inter-relationship of finances for local govt between Westminster, Holyrood and 32 local councils in Scotland requires to be understood by crofters and all other citizens. The current economic climate will get worse before it gets better – another 10bn of welfare cuts to be determined and implemented by Westminster (reserved power), not to mention the 100bn waste of money on Trident. Alex Salmond and the SNP govt have to dance to Westminster’s tune, still controling over 80% of taxes raised in Scotland, hence the need for a YES vote for Independence in 2015. Only then will we as a nation be able to determine our own priorities and commit to social democratic policies. The sooner the Scots’ Labour/Tory/Green supporters get on board the better. St Andrew’s Day today is a good time to reflect and join the growing momentum of support for independence.

52. Waisting my breath, the SNPs 6%, Pavlov ??????????? plus where is Mr Mackenzie, he did start this thread, seems to have gone very quite. Not in Lochs I bet !

53. Oh yes Ray was in Lochs, along with the MSP! Fortunately the Klingon was sent homeward, to “think” again, off to a galaxy far, far away. My guess is that he will re-enter our solar system next election. People of Point, listen to me- keep him to yourselves next time!
    I was one of the sensible seventy three, so my man did not win, but it was a pure joy to watch the faces of those brutes as they were comprehensively crushed.