THE LEADER of Fife Council has said there can be “no kidding” about the challenges facing his administration ahead of next month’s budget.
Alex Rowley reiterated to members of the local authority’s scrutiny committee that cuts to local services and job losses were inevitable as the region attempts to balance its books.
The committee met at Fife House to study the spending plans presented by the minority Labour administration as the council looks to make £66 million of savings over the next three years.
Addressing members, Mr Rowley said: “I think it would be misleading if we said we could make these kind of cuts without an impact on services and without a reduction in jobs.
“There will be an impact and it is important to be honest about that.
“We would be kidding ourselves otherwise.
“But we must look to do things more efficiently and better.”
Members were warned that savings of £5.9m needed to be identified by the beginning of the next financial year.
Among the sectors where savings have been sourced are through the council’s support for Fife Sports and Leisure Trust, Fife Cultural Trust and its communications department cuts that are predicted to save almost £2.8m per year by 2015/16.
Revised tendering of local bus services, efficiencies in landscaping and changes to the way roads are gritted are also set to make considerable savings as the budget squeeze hits.
However, Ring and Ride and Dial a Ride services will not be reduced, with £200,000 of savings being made by not expanding the scheme further from its existing form.
As well as making cuts, much of the draft budget identified areas of long-term investment.
The region’s social work service is to receive an additional £3m of funding, while an additional £2.5m has been proposed for education.
A £1m pot has also been identified to support training and apprenticeship opportunities for Fife Council services funding which has been achieved through reducing overtime payments made to staff.
This year’s budget is the first time in Fife that a draft of spending proposals has been published for consultation, a process that the administration intends to continue with in the following years.
The budget will be put to a full meeting of the council for approval next month.
jowatson@thecourier.co.uk