The scale of the substantial financial funding gap facing Western Isles Council has deepened by a third to nearly £12 million over the coming three years it emerged yesterday.
More redundancies and early retirements loom due to the worsening “financial crisis” mainly caused by the higher cost of pensions and inflation eroding central government funding.
The authority yesterday voted for a package of cuts and savings for 2015-16 to stave off an immediate £3.7million funding gap.
Previously it was estimated another £5.4million was needed to take the council through to 2018, but this figure has now soared by £3million.
It means an estimated £8.2million of cuts are necessary to keep council services running.
Council leader Angus Campbell said: “Our own projections suggest further savings of around £8.2million may well be needed across the last two years of our council.
“In developing our budget for this period I want us to look at how we can all re-engage with our communities on budget choices, an exercise which we have very successfully undertaken before.”
The council agreed with Councillor Donald Crichton to press the Scottish Government over “options to mitigate the exceptional financial crisis”.
A budget report highlights the risk of compulsory job losses while other posts will be abolished by restructuring some council departments.
An estimated 200-plus council positions have gone in the past three or so years including early retirement, vacancies which are not filled as well as redundancies.
The social work department presently faces a massive £847,000 overspend in looking after elderly people next year forcing the authority to find the cash to increase its core budget by £500,000 for 2015.