Tough Decisions on the Council budget – have your say

20 November 2009

Councillor Jenny Dawe, Leader of the Liberal Democrat led City Council, has warned that in February the Council will face many hard decisions when it sets it budget as the Governments in London and Edinburgh tighten the financial controls the city operates under.

In April Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling announced an additional 2% efficiency saving or cut on top of the 2% already announced by the SNP Government in Edinburgh and delivered in previous years by the council.

In her Leaders Report to Councillors for the meeting on 19 November 2010 Councillor Dawe warns that. "Unprecedented savings must now be found, amounting to about £90m in the next three years. This could mean savings of 10% on support costs and 4% on front line services, followed by a further 4% across the board in each of the next two years.

"In previous Budgets this Administration has delivered record efficiency savings, begun restoring Council reserves, frozen council tax for successive years whilst still managing to transform services.

"The savings cannot be made without impacting on Council services, but they must be made. To ensure that we make the right decisions, it is important that we hear a wide range of views. I would therefore welcome hearing from as many individuals and organisations as possible about their priorities for the city and how the impact of any budget reductions could be minimized. Please email me on leader@edinburgh.gov.uk"

Edinburgh South Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Fred Mackintosh said, "We all know that the public accounts are in a mess and that savings have to be found, but why does Labour not cut Trident, the National Identity Database and other unnecessary expenditure before hitting public services in this way?."

"We must we set a clear and honest path to restoring the health of the public finances, but we must also offer help to ordinary people now to help them get through the recession after its aftermath.

"As a Liberal Democrat I want to see a real national debate to identify lower priority spending so that we can protect vital front line public services, which so many people rely on. That is much more sensible and would be more like to work that simply top slicing 4% of the budget of Councils like Edinburgh."