City of Edinburgh Council first Scottish local authority to set budget

The City of Edinburgh Council has become the first council in Scotland to agree a budget for 2016/17.

The budget includes savings of £85.4m, against a budget of £950m, but some proposed cuts have been dropped as a result of responses to its public consultation.

Planned cost-saving measures that have been withdrawn – for this year, at least – include abolishing lunchtime school crossing patrols and the night noise team, reducing staffing of the council’s in-house home care service by 25 per cent, reduced community centre staffing and cutting funding to Police Scotland.

Proposed reviews of support staff in special schools and family and pupil support, and a redesign of day care services for adults with learning disabilities have also been shelved.

The increased revenue and savings to meet the budget shortfall will come from, among other things, increased parking charges and a rise in the price of residents’ parking permits; reduced funding to Edinburgh Festival Theatres Trust and Winter Festivals; cuts to street lighting repairs, emergency road repairs and bus shelter maintenance; savings on staff costs, including staff overtime and use of agency staff; and changes to delivery of social care, including greater use of telecare and reablement services.

The area that received most feedback during the budget consultation was a proposal to charge for individual music tuition in schools from the financial year 2017/18.

More than 10,000 people signed two petitions opposing the introduction of the charges and the council received over 550 comments against charges and only 20 in favour.

This will not go ahead in the 2016/17 financial year, and following the feedback received, council officers recommended that further measures be undertaken if it is proposed in future, including further engagement with headteachers, transitional arrangements for pupils already taking tuition and clarity about costs and exemptions before the matter is put to parents.

Councillor Alasdair Rankin, Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, said: “Like other local authorities around the country, we face the challenge of a rising demand for services while funding is reducing. That’s why we will focus on the services that matter the most to the public.

“I am confident that we have taken the needs of Edinburgh’s residents into account when setting this year’s budget and am delighted that more than 4,000 people took the time to have their say on our draft budget proposals.”

Meanwhile, Glasgow City Council has only launched its public consultation this week, leaving it with a tight schedule to finalise a budget by March.

Councils across Scotland are facing challenges in finding multi-million pound budget savings at a higher than expected level, following the Scottish Government’s budget announcement in December, which included a cut to central funding for local authorities.