It may be a sunny September day, but Gillian Owen’s thoughts are already turning to winter.
Specifically, the Aberdeenshire Council leader is praying for a mild few months ahead – as she admits the cash-strapped local authority would struggle to pay for anything more.
Her admission comes as the council weighs up its bank balance halfway through the financial year.
Six months ago, Mrs Owen passed a budget that axed lollipop men and women and slashed janitor posts as schools felt the brunt of cutbacks.
Already this year, the council’s “core budget” (meaning their general fund to cover essential services) is £3.5 million overspent.
But winter is coming, and things could soon get much worse…
In an exclusive interview, Mrs Owen revealed:
- Why it could come down to “a choice between cutting grass or employing a teacher” as the council scrambles to make savings
- Whether smaller schools could be on the chopping block
- And how a ploy to raise cash by increasing town centre parking fees has FAILED to pay off
‘We haven’t got winter reserves’
But first, the Ellon councillor explained why she is dreading the first sign of winter snow…
She explained: “We’ve got stocks but there’s no budget left.
“The reserve is gone so that’s going to end up being a pressure.
“If we have a bad winter, the issue is going to be we haven’t got winter maintenance reserves so we would have to use core budget, but that won’t cover us…
“There will be an added pressure on top of what we’ve already got.”
Earlier this year, we revealed that soaring salt costs were combining with rising fuel prices to pummel winter spending – with the rural authority having to cover so many miles of road.
So what is being done to stop the situation getting worse across the board?
‘Everything is on the table’
The council leader said the local authority is cutting back on whatever it can, explaining: “If we don’t need to spend the money, we’re not”.
Mrs Owen added: “We are reviewing why we do things that sit outwith the council plan.
“If it’s out, we have to have a serious think about whether we do actually need to do it, whether we can facilitate it happening or whether we actually just need to stop.”
The local authority boss gave a dire warning that “everything is on the table and back in the melting pot”.
Council services are being told to look at what savings can be made now and any potentially difficult cuts that could come in the future.
“The more savings we make within the year, that’s actually going to help us at the end of the year with balancing the books,” Mrs Owen explained.
Health care budget blown
The Health and Social Care Partnership is looking at a worse-case scenario of being £26.195 million over budget.
Aberdeenshire Council has to contribute around 43% of funding to the partnership.
But should things be as dire as suggested, the local authority would have to pay the out of balance sum, adding a £11.264m cost.
This is particularly worrying to the council leader, who says the knock-on effect will be huge.
“We are going to have to make some really tough choices but that does get a bit galling when you see NHS Grampian is underfunded by £262 million.
“The Westbank Care Home had to close. Whilst that has been quite a successful process, the lives that impacts are huge and we must never forget that.
“But these are the sort of decisions that we are going to get more as we move forward because £26m is a huge amount of money.”
What could happen to schools?
Education and children’s services are forecast to be £2.262m over budget.
However, the council leader says work is ongoing to try and transform Aberdeenshire’s school estate.
Mrs Owen says the local authority has to be “innovative” – but what does that mean?
Could schools be merged together or closed in a bid to save cash?
These are certainly options that have been under consideration.
Mrs Owen said: “We’ve got all of these schools and we can’t necessarily go in and close as and when we please.
“Tipperty and Foveran are looking to merge because Tipperty’s numbers have gone down so much and Foveran’s has gone up, we’ve had to look at doing that.”
But the council leader is aware this might not be a popular move with parents.
“Schools are very emotive, rural schools particularly,” she stressed.
“My boy went to Foveran so I’m very much in favour of rural schools.
“But when the numbers go down to the extent of four or five kids, you do actually consider what the educational benefit is.”
Rising energy costs are also hitting the council as it powers and heats all of its educational settings across the region.
While cleaning and janitorial supplies could be over budget by a whopping £326,000.
Car park fees not raising as much cash as hoped
Despite removing free parking and increasing fees across the region earlier this year, the council admits it has not made the income it thought it would.
But are rising charges driving people away from council car parks?
Mrs Owen isn’t too sure.
“It’s a difficult one, people do stop but in the current financial crisis lots of people are probably not necessarily going out to towns,” she said.
“Town centres are changing which means communities within them are changing too so how they used to shop and how they shop now may be different.”
Meanwhile, the council’s bereavement service is forecasting an over budget position of £100,000.
They say this is due to fewer burials than expected along with rising internment costs and ground maintenance.
Community help is needed across Aberdeenshire
As grounds maintenance is expected to be over budget by £350,000, the council wants to see communities take ownership of their towns and villages instead.
This could be by tending to parks or cemeteries, as is currently seen in Ellon thanks to its Civic Pride and Friends of Ellon Cemetery groups.
Mrs Owen believes these groups are essential as the council “hasn’t necessarily got the resources to do everything”.
She added: “They need to be encouraged to do whatever they can to make the towns look better, particularly when we are looking at landscape services being reduced.
“Is it a priority to cut the grass or to have a school teacher in front of a classroom?
“It’s gotten down to that brass tax now.”
The council will offer support to establish groups to ensure communities can help themselves.
Changes to come to staff vacancies
Staff costs are expected to to be under budget by £200,000 due to a number of vacancies.
Officers are working on a new staffing model that should be in place over the next three months.
It will see some existing vacant posts “repurposed” in a bid to finally get them filled where needed.
The council leader explained: “We are reviewing our approach to recruitment and careful management of vacancies.
“We don’t want to overload any individual because that’s obviously a problem.”
Councillors will discuss the financial update when they meet next week.
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