Not really any good news from today’s meeting of Aberdeenshire Council when we set the budget for this year. We are facing some £20m of cuts just to stand still.
Aberdeenshire is the third lowest funded council in Scotland, and has been for many years. If we had our fair share of government grant – that’s just the average that all councils receive – we would have £52m more to spend.
Councillors agreed to a revenue budget for the 2018/19 year of £543m. This is the amount held to cover day-to-day funding of services such as staffing and service delivery.
There was agreement across the chamber from councillors of all parties that council tax will go up by 3%. To do otherwise would have left a £4m hole in the finances resulting in even more cuts. The council tax increases work out at 45p a week for the lowest band, and £1.65 a week for the highest band. I have attached a photo showing what this means to householders.
There are a number of cuts to services, but these are not as bad as they could have been, thanks to a last-minute agreement at the Scottish Parliament between the SNP and the Green party for more funding for local government. This resulted in Aberdeenshire receiving an extra £7.7m. Very welcome, but still not enough to avert some cut-backs.
There was the usual political ding-dong, with the Democratic/Green pairing proposing an alternative budget, as did the SNP/Labour group. The eventual vote was won by the Tory/Lib Dem/independent administration by 41 votes to 21.
We also approved a capital plan for 2018 to 2033 which totals £849m, including a £71m Peterhead community campus, £23m for an Inverurie community campus, and £6m for a community sports facility at the Hill of Banchory. The plan was approved with one councillor registering dissent. (I have heard questions locally since these decisions were made asking why Portlethen should pay for schools elsewhere. The simple answer is that our relatively new academy and the Hillside School opened last year were financed by the council too.)
Extra funding of £5.17m was allocated to the council’s reserves to pay for pay increases – which are still being negotiated nationally – and any overspends in 2018-19.
The council’s own carbon budget was also agreed, and we have to reduce our emissions by 4,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, which is about the same as taking 784 cars off the road for a full year.
Finally, it was agreed unanimously to increase council house rents by 3.75%. The average weekly increase will be £2.67, taking the average weekly rent to £73.90.
No-one stands for election aiming to cut services and put up taxes and charges. Unfortunately there is no alternative. Our local finances have been cut in real terms every year for a decade, affecting the funding needed for our schools, roads and care services. At the same time we face significant budget pressures from inflation and ever-increasing demand for the services. Not a good day.
Why does stonehaven get overlooked? Stonehaven is desperate for a new academy or better still a stonehaven Community Campus. I would love to know the reasons behind this.
Schools are rated according to their condition and suitability. Another factor can be securing land for a replacement.