“We can’t keep going like this,” council leader Mark Findlater says across his desk.
Reeling off budget lines he knows are going to concern Aberdeenshire residents, the Conservative group leader is keen to temper the reaction.
He has invited The Press And Journal to talk through his Tory and Liberal Democrat administration’s spending plans for the next year.
Knowing the process will be painful for some, they published it eight days before Thursday’s council meeting where the action plan to slash £67 million will be agreed.
The first £50m worth of cuts are detailed here. In this piece, we are – as has become a budget-setting phrase at Woodhill House – looking at the “salami-slicing”.
Aberdeen incinerator will help to balance Aberdeenshire Council books
Chasing down the enormous savings target this year – and the next five – will bring about mass change at Aberdeenshire Council HQ.
But when the big ticket items, like voluntary redundancy and council tax hikes, have been used up; it will be schools, bus funding and residents left to bear the brunt in 2023-24.
The council leader’s office at the local authority’s Aberdeen-based headquarters is adorned with art.
Mr Findlater’s highlight of his tour of the little room is a landscape of St John’s kirkyard overlooking Gardenstown, by Troup artist Bryan Angus.
And there is further delight at his desk, when he points out the remaining “easy win” in the budget papers.
Aberdeenshire Council stands to save at least £2.7m, and possibly as much as £3.3m, in landfill charges next year.
Along with Aberdeen City and Moray councils, it has signed up to instead send its residential non-recyclable waste to the £156m incinerator in Tullos.
‘Far from ideal’: Huge cuts for Aberdeenshire’s council-backed bus services
But there is little else to be happy about for the council leader, and for residents.
Plans to withdraw council backing for subsidised fixed-route buses could be the cause of contention on budget day.
Mr Findlater said the move is “never a first option for local authorities” and is “far from ideal”.
“There needs to be a reduction in rural services to save the money asked of us by the Holyrood budget,” he adds.
“This is an opportunity to modernise the council-funded routes.
“But bus services are just one of a number of areas councillors and officials have had to look at to protect our long-underfunded statutory services.”
It’s not an idea that SNP group leader Ms Petrie is on board with.
The Huntly, Strathbogie and Howe of Alford councillor warned: “Significant cuts to bus services will have a real impact on our area.
“I am not sure the administration has thought it through.
“That is not something we will be including in our budget, which will hold firm to our priorities of education, young people and climate change.
“Savings are needed but thankfully I think we have avoided the worst of it this year.”
Big savings to be made in Aberdeenshire schools and nurseries
The Conservative and Liberal Democrat budget will put renewed and greater pressure on schools to save hundreds of thousands of pounds.
A gradual roll-out of large class sizes will continue, while there are huge savings planned in the wage bill.
Salaries will be clawed back by having fewer deputy headteachers and education support officers.
Unions have been included in the talks with local authority chiefs already.
Meanwhile, pre-school access to teachers at Aberdeenshire Council nurseries is being scaled back too.
Another £1.1m could be raised through an admin charge on direct-to-school funding to be used to tackle the poverty-related attainment gap, as well as new saving targets handed down to headteachers.
And the discontinuation of the award-winning Peterdeen and Fraserdeen projects with Aberdeen FC Community Trust will save another £287,000.
Council tax rise already set for April in Aberdeenshire
Councillors in Aberdeenshire agreed a 4% council tax rise last month, ahead of Thursday’s budget meeting.
Together with new homes being liable for the levy, it will bring in another £5.5m.
Meanwhile, officials are going to review their records – and hope to find another £700,000 as a result.
They will have look at those claiming single person’s council tax discount, and check that they are still entitled to the help.
New developer charges for road-building, renewables and street naming – as well as increased fees for businesses like short-term lets – are worth another £563,000.
Hefty redesign of Aberdeenshire Council needed with years of multi-million-pound cuts ahead
This all comes as finance chiefs predict needing to reduce annual spending by £91.8m by March 2028.
Mr Findlater promised to offer his vision for councillor-led redesign during his speech on Thursday.
“There is a lot of the transformation that will be in future years.
“I don’t want to go into it too much as I will address it a fair bit at the budget meeting. But councils have to change. We can’t keep going like this.”
The SNP is also expected to set out how they too plan to end “year after year of picking the least-worst options” put to them before budget day.
“Colleagues have said it is ‘salami-slicing’ before – and we absolutely need to do things differently”, Ms Petrie explained.
“That is something we will bring forward in our proposals: forward-looking, transformational suggestions of how to provide the services Aberdeenshire residents expect, but also how we introduce change to bring in more finance ourselves.”