North Lanarkshire Council to discuss cost-cutting proposals

Nov 12 2009 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

NORTH Lanarkshire Council are to meet next week to discuss a catalogue of cost-cutting proposals.

Officials say the authority’s budget of around £900m will have to be cut by £15m next financial year and a further £60m over the following three financial years.

A list of possible efficiency savings for 2010-11, compiled by officers and adding up to more than £16m, will be considered by councillors at Tuesday’s policy committee meeting.

They include:

l Imposing a £2 levy on more than 11,000 old folk who use the community alarm service, generating £1m.

l Increasing charges for home helps, generating £175,000.

l Introduction of town centre car parking charges, generating £300,000.

l Changes in way roads are gritted including reducing gritting in areas with a 20mph speed limit and “rationalising” number of roads gritted as a precaution.

l Removing foreign language assistants from schools.

l Axing school campus police officers, deployed at three secondaries under a pilot project.

Last month it emerged that because of falling pupil numbers, officials have proposed axing four primaries and two nurseries.

Among the schools under threat are Belvidere Primary in Bellshill and St Matthew’s, Wishaw.

Yesterday (Wednesday), North Lanarkshire council leader Jim McCabe fired the first shots in what is sure to be a bitter political debate over what is to be cut and who is responsible for the current financial position faced by councils.

He said: “It is no secret that we face a significant reduction in our budget as a result of the global economic crisis and a reduction in settlement from the Scottish Government.

"It's also clear that tough decisions will have to be made.

“But one thing this Labour administration has no plans to do in the next year is charge for services where there is no charge, or increase outside of normal inflation, charges that already exist .

“That is why the Labour group at North Lanarkshire will resist, for example, proposals for next year to increase the home support taper charge and charging for community alarms.”

SNP Group Leader Richard Lyle said they would also oppose increases in home help charges and the introduction of a charge for the community alarm service.

He added: “These cuts have been imposed on us by the London Government cutting the block grant to the Scottish Government.

“We will do our utmost to protect the elderly and vulnerable in our society and we will be looking at the proposals line by line.”

He would also be exploring with directors the number of job vacancies and how long they have been unfilled.

Several months ago, the council had 800 vacancies among their massive workforce of 18,000.

“I would contend that if the job has been unfilled for six months, we don’t really need it,” he added.

In a message to staff, council chief executive Gavin Whitefield said they aimed to protect frontline services.

He added: “We've made every effort to ensure the impact on jobs and working conditions is kept to an absolute minimum. “Where such an impact is unavoidable, we will consult with trades unions about the way forward.”

He said there should be no compulsory redundancies as a result of the efficiency proposals for 2010-11.

A further report aimed at slashing the budget by £60m for the three-year period from 2011-12 to 2013-14 will also be tabled at Tuesday’s meeting.