Two Orkney councillors have given stark warnings around the future of the local authority’s finances, calling information contained in a report “shocking”, “appalling” and “frightening”.
During a meeting of the council’s monitoring and audit committee, councillors David Dawson and John Richards took the opportunity to lay out the pressures the council will face and to point to inequality with Scotland’s island councils.
As the committee scrutinised an internal audit report looking at the council’s financial planning and budget setting process, Mr Dawson said: “It paints a dismal picture so far as the challenges in regard to the funding from the Scottish Government is concerned.”
Mr Dawson then read part of the report which he called “quite shocking.”
Is Orkney being treated fairly?
Quoting a statement by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, he said: “Adjusting for differences in how ferry funding is carried out the council estimates that it received around £673 per head lower than the Western Isles.
“Stated in another way, if Orkney was funded in the same way as the Western Isles it would receive around £14.9m more each year to deliver council services.”
Councillor Dawson went on to read another statement from the report that said Orkney has the second-highest proportion of its total revenue settlement in Scotland being ring-fenced at 9.1%.
Shetland and the Western Isles have the two lowest rates at 4.4% and 4.1% respectively.
Councillor Dawson continued: “That’s appalling reading. Proportionally, we’re required, year-on-year to make substantial savings besides drawing on reserves.
“I’m going to be quite political here – that the present regime in Holyrood should treat Orkney with such disdain personally irks me.
‘They’ve lost sight of fair-mindedness’
“They talk a good game as far as challenges inequality across Scotland is concerned, the only problem being that they’ve clearly lost sight of fair-mindedness when it comes to the people of Orkney.
Chairman of the committee John Richards added to councillor Dawson’s comments, saying: “Injustice bothers me and has always bothered me since I was a child – unfairness, inequality, inequity and injustice.
“If Orkney was funded in the same way as the Western Isles we would receive £14.9 million more each year to deliver council services here.
“What a difference that could make to the quality of life. We’ve identified child poverty as an issue, the growth in the use of the food bank, we’re struggling with fuel poverty, and we have a relatively low wage economy.
“This message should go further afield than just the members of this committee.
The council’s interim head of finance, Colin Kemp, replied to the comments.
A complicated business
He said: “Local government finance is a complicated business and there are inequalities in the system there.
“Obviously, the danger is that when you target an individual inequality you’re assuming you’re going to get a better outcome if it gets addressed. That may not get the case.”
Mr Kemp added: “I have no doubt that the public purse will get tightened going forward once we total up the cost of the pandemic and the impact on the economy.
“As we know local government tends to sit at the bottom of the queue when it comes to the public purse being allocated. The challenges won’t get any smaller going forward but planning for savings is a key part of that.”