STREET lights could be switched off, charges for services could rise and school days could even be shortened as Highland Council tries to slash its spending by £80million.
The local authority has warned people in the north it has tough decisions to make and has not ruled out the possibility of making staff redundant to balance its books.
The council’s ruling SNP-Liberal Democrat-Labour coalition has admitted that finding the savings needed would be a challenge.
But Independent nationalist member Donnie Kerr claimed the local authority’s budget had already been “pared to the bone” and that any more cuts would make it “inoperable”.
Senior councillors and officials are drawing up a list of areas where spending could be reduced and will review the council’s operations before unveiling the final list of savings proposals. Cuts to the school day could be included, as they have been highlighted in a report prepared by officials, but budget leader and SNP councillor Dave Fallows gave an assurance last night that this would not happen.
He admitted that finding £80million of savings between 2015-16 and 2018-19 would be a “challenge”, but added that compulsory redundancies would be avoided unless “absolutely necessary”.
Councillor Fallows said the first savings proposals would be revealed in January. Officials will target the council’s two biggest-spending services – education and health.
Shortening the school day was mooted as a money-saving measure last year but was rejected. But consideration of the amalgamation of schools is inevitable as the local authority tries to save on building and staff costs. Reviews of the school estate are ongoing in several areas.
The council also ran trials of street light switch-offs in various villages and towns across the Highlands in 2011-12, but the scheme attracted complaints in some smaller communities and only achieved limited savings.
Inverness councillor Mr Kerr said last night: “What’s left is pared to the bone. To reduce it further would make the council inoperable.” Commenting on the street lighting experiment, Mr Kerr said: “They could not make the savings last time. I am astonished that they are bringing it back. You can’t call these efficiency savings – these are cuts.”
Mr Fallows said that while the Scottish Government provided a flat cash settlement, inflation meant it was not enough to meet all the council’s costs. The price of road materials and energy were causing particular pressures, he said.
He added: “In the grand scheme of things, it is no worse than the previous three years. Having said that, what we cannot continue to do is just keep nibbling at the edges.
“Doing early work means we are taking the opportunity to focus on looking at a real root-and-branch review of how we find every opportunity to generate income.”
Leader of the opposition Carolyn Wilson said she believed details of the measures would be kept secret until after the independence referendum because the SNP did not want any “bad news” to affect the vote.
She said that the local authority’s “hands are tied” over raising council tax because of the subsidy it would lose if it did so.
She said: “We can’t take more out of the budget. This can’t be about national politics.”
Mr Fallows said Mrs Wilson’s referendum claims were “complete nonsense”. He said: “We are clearly saying that our intention is to bring forward savings throughout the year as we identify them and not stack them all up for a nasty round of news after the referendum. That would be dishonest.”
Comment, Page 32