Opposition councillors in Angus have seen plans to put up a council tax freeze-busting budget “torpedoed”.
The architects of an alternative spending plan have accused the Scottish Government of “bully-boy tactics” after revealing that a council tax hike of 18% would be required just to break even in the face of financial penalties which would follow any move to raise council tax.
Critics have attacked the Scottish Government over its “tyranny” over the finance settlement, with one councillor labelling it the “democracy of Germany in the Third Reich”.
His comment was described as “beneath contempt” by the Scottish Government.
Carnoustie councillor Bill Bowles who briefly became a member of the SNP last year said work had been going on for some time to deliver an alternative budget which would introduce a modest council tax rise in a bid to stave off threats to services.
“We were looking at a 5% increase and could have lived with the loss of £1.4 million of council tax freeze support,” he said.
“But the draconian penalties which would be inflicted mean Angus Council would lose not only the council tax freeze support (£1.4m) and teacher number support (£1.83m) but their share of health and social care integration funding (£5m) as well.
“This means that we would need to propose an increase of around 18% just to break even.”
He went on: “I am disgusted that (finance secretary) Mr Swinney should find it acceptable to reduce local authority budgets, attempt to put all the blame on Westminster, and then propose to withhold massive amounts of allocated moneys if councils step out of line and refuse to bow to his demands.
“The only people who are being affected by these actions are the young, elderly and less well-off.
“If this is democracy in action then the last time it was seen to work so effectively was in Germany in the era of the Third Reich.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Comments such as this are beneath contempt.”
Arbroath opposition councillor David Fairweather said: “This has torpedoed our plans completely.
“This dictatorial attempt by the SNP Government over our budget settlement is a devastating blow to the residents of Angus who will see essential services eroded further or lost completely.
“For us now to put forward an alternative budget is nigh near impossible and I am sure the public will see this tyrannical SNP stance for what it is.”
The Angus budget will now be set on February 18 after the authority decided to move it back a week to allow work to take place on the detail of addressing the funding gap beyond the savings package already being considered.