Extra funding but Fife Council warns cuts are still coming

A first stage agreement was reached at Holyrood last week which could see £12m coming to the to the local authority.

Local council leaders have welcomed the extra funding, but given different views on its impact.

The new deal would see an extra £90m for the core local government settlement, a move to three-year local authority budgets and legislation that will give councils control over tourism taxes.

Mark Ruskell, Mid Scotland and Fife Green MSP said: “The proposed cuts in Fife, particularly to education services, have been met with outcry by the public, and really emphasises how deeply people value local services such as schools and social care, sports centres and libraries.

“This Green budget deal means that Fife Council now has £12.6 million to protect these services and the jobs of front line workers.

You may also be interested in:

BBC One Show reports on Kirkcaldy shopping centre £1 auction

Shambles as East Fife game in Ireland cancelled minutes before kick-off

Mossmorran warns of ten days of flaring

“I now expect to see the damaging cuts to education off the table, including retaining our much valued pupil support assistants, breakfast clubs, and music tuition.”

But Fife’s co-leaders warned savings would still have to be made.

Councillor David Alexander (SNP) said: “It looks like we will be receiving an additional £6m, meaning that Fife will get at least £16 million more than  last year and that makes all the difference. We will still have to make some saving.

“Times are still tough, but we are in a far better place – more money for the doubling of free child care hours in 2020, the one per cent pay barrier broken for staff, Frank’s Law introduced, a mental health professional in every secondary school in Scotland.

“On top of that there are the future proposals on scrapping the council tax.”

But his Labour counterpart, David Ross, said much of the extra cash was ring-fenced, and key services still faced “significant” cuts.

He said: “Although I welcome some of the changes in the Scottish budget proposals compared with the draft set out in December, Fife is still facing a significant cut of £4m in its core grant from the SNP Scottish Government.

“I am disappointed that the Scottish Government hasn’t done more to recognise the huge financial pressures councils are under, and this budget will still mean cuts to services and job losses.

“Whilst it’s true that Fife will see an increase in its overall funding next year, £24m of it is ringfenced for new costs and initiatives we have to carry out at the direction of the Scottish Government and can’t be used to support existing services.  We also face increased costs for pay and inflation as well as increased demand for services like social care.”

Cllr Ross said the bottom line was “a budget gap of over £9m between what it would cost to maintain our current level of services and our income for next year.”
He added: “These cuts are likely to include more cuts to education, road maintenance, community services and central and support services. 

“These aren’t cuts we want to make but are a direct result of the cut in our budget from the Scottish Government.”