Tories put front-line services above net-zero

The minority SNP administration were forced into some horse-trading with the Conservatives which kept the council tax at the level recommended by officers of seven per cent. 

 

A Labour amendment which included a council tax rise of nine per cent was defeated, at the crunch budget on Wednesday February 26.

 

Elected members had gone into the meeting knowing that the proposals to end free town centre parking, close six libraries and the Arran Outdoor Centre had been taken off the table before the meeting.

 

However, unexpectedly the plans to cut the Eglinton Park ranger service had been left on the table for consideration amid a £15.7 million funding gap.

 

The SNP motion had proposed keeping the Eglinton Park service, increasing council tax to 7.5 per cent, using non-recurring investment of £325,000 or a wellbeing enterprise at Greenwood conference centre and merging the Streetscene and roads functions as well as accelerating savings of £26,000 into a review of KA Leisure.

 

Labour’s amendment included reversing the cuts on teacher numbers, school crossing patrollers, the Music Service and Eglinton Park and sharing £4m in capital investment between Kilwinning, Saltcoats and Stevenston, Garnock Valley and Arran as well as a proposal for a nine per cent council tax rise.

 

Among proposals in the Conservative amendment were cutting 10 Community Learning and Development posts and the jobs of six Area Inclusion workers, as well as reducing council tax to six per cent. 

 

The Tories and SNP removed their motions and the new SNP-Tory motion removed the Eglinton Park cuts, merged roads and Streetscene, and accelerated £26,000 of cuts in KA Leisure.

 

Some £100,000 of funds were re-allocated from the Tree Planting Fund and £200,000 was re-allocated from the Community Asset Transfer Fund, called for a £500,000 investment in the roads and a new additional investment of £250,000 was proposed for Streetscene.

 

It was proposed to use £300,000 to support the exploration of a wellbeing enterprise hub at Greenwood conference centre.

 

The SNP-Tory motion was carried with 18 votes compared to 12 for the Labour amendment, meaning cuts of crossing patrollers, re-alignment of teaching staff and re-design of the Music Service in schools remained.

 

Reform councillors Matthew McLean and Stewart Ferguson declined to put forward a motion in the debate and North Coast councillor Ian Murdoch abstained from the vote, saying he “objected to” the budget.

 

Furious Labour councillors accused the SNP-Tory alliance of targeting children with their cuts.

 

Labour group leader Joe Cullinane said: “For the third year in a row, North Ayrshire has an SNP-Tory budget and this year’s version targets our area’s children with its cuts.

 

“Targeting North Ayrshire’s children for cuts is shameful. The Labour group cannot support balancing the budget on the back of children. We would have added as little as 44p per week on council tax for the majority of North Ayrshire households to save our kids from these cuts.

 

“The reality is if the SNP Government in Edinburgh hadn’t sold North Ayrshire Council short again, we wouldn’t have faced any of these decisions.”

 

The Conservatives hailed the budget as a success, as net-zero funding was cut by £800,999, and £500,000 was invested back into infrastructure such as roads, to help fund the £40m maintenance backlog.

 

Conservative Group leader, Cameron Inglis, said: “We have also been able to cut net-zero initiatives such as the tree- planting strategy and the energy smart scheme both which had money sitting doing nothing in them. 

 

“We are pleased to say that we have stood up for our constituents and got money for what they have been telling the council for a long time are the areas that money needs to be invested in."