NOTEBOOK by BILL HEANEY
We’ve already told you the options West Dunbartonshire Council have to choose from for budget cuts when the axe finally falls at the annual budget meeting in the Burgh Hall on March 5.
There were 60 options on the slash and burn list the officials have put forward, but none of them even remotely helpful jumped off the page, which was leaked of course, and there was none that we hadn’t heard before. Such is the depth of innovative thinking in Church Street.
It was like asking the passengers on the Titanic which one would now like to take their place in the queue to jump overboard.
There were no ideas about novel ways of doing things, nothing that would ameliorate the impact of their suggested cuts on public services, which range from education to social care to name but two.
Watch out for the speech on March 5 from whoever has drawn the short straw to be the 21st century equivalent of the council treasurer.
The person given the unenviable task of reading out the final list of cuts, which will involve putting the poor mouth on it; blaming others for state we are in, and sound like someone reading out the death notices from the back page of the old Lennox Herald.
They should have been sent across the road to to have drama lessons from the DPT in the Denny Civic Theatre.
Just in passing, I was tipped off this week – another of those Dumbarton secrets that are impossible to keep – that the Two Minutes Silence as the Lennox was once known is now selling just over 1,000 copies a week, and the Council is still being asked to pay the going rate for advertising when the circulation was close to 15,000.
But that’s what happens when you throw your lot in with unscrupulous media millionaires and ban local journalists from asking pertinent questions in the public interest about the way the council is going about its business.
Anyway, the message from WDC to the electorate today today is a bland, hastily cobbled together statement that a range of savings options and adjustments to close a potential £7.7million budget gap will be considered next month.
They claim to be “facing significant financial challenges for 2025/26 and beyond”, which is something which puzzles the council tax paying public when they read that the allegedly cash-strapped council has already coughed up a £6 million “loan” to one of the world’s richest oil companies to clkear the polluted site for an industrial development on the old Esso tank farm at Bowling.
And this at a time when we have factories rotting and rusting in every part of Dunbartonshire due to the sun having set on most manufacturing concerns around here.
This does not chime well with today’s WDC statement that “work has been ongoing over recent years to reduce spending and increase income, while protecting jobs and the services residents rely on most.” And the band played Believe it if you Like.
According to First Minister John Swinney in the Scottish Parliament this morning we are well used to being misinformed or disinformed or just plain lied to by politicians around here.
But due to the difference between the funding received by the Council – including the settlement from the Scottish Government – and the cost of delivering vital services, further savings are necessary.
Pause here to beat your chest and say a prayer for “poor” WDC.
You won’t of course when you read the next part of their valedictory statement. Yes, the council itself must be for the chop soon in a long awaited reorganisation of local government.
“The Council’s current budget gap of £5.6million could increase to almost £7.7million based on what level of funding is agreed to support services delivered by West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership (WDHSCP), West Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust and the Valuation Joint Board. In addition, WDHSCP has an estimated minimum budget gap of £5.6 million,” their statement says.
We have to ask if we really have to find that money. After all, are there any more doctors to be sacked illegally, community care homes to be shut down, disabled workers to to be discriminated against and sacked or care workers that we can steal their holiday entitlement from?
Councillors will meet on Wednesday 5 March to consider options to ensure they meet their legal obligation to set a balanced budget. They would be better staying in the hoose.
A report published today (THURS) outlines the different options to be considered at the meeting, where elected members will also set the Council Tax level for 2025/26. We told you about them in The Democrat yesterday.
What we can now do though is emphasise a few of them. They include the removal of funding for the Highland Games and the closure or reduction in opening hours of Dalmuir Golf Course, which the Council pays more than £100,000 each year to subsidise running costs for, while memberships continue to decline. In truth it is said this was the only place where the Council cut the grass. The golfers had better keep their heids doon and hit through the ball.
Elected members will also consider a reduction or removal of footway gritting in the area (fall on your backside if you must but it will have nothing to do with them); a reduction in the number of school crossing patrollers in the area (go for the lollipop men and women now that you have cut the bus services and introduced lethal route to schools; reduced levels of funding to external organisations including Women’s Aid, Y Sort It and Clyde Shopmobility; and ending the Care of Garden scheme.
So, will you look the other way when women are batterd and brutalised by their partners; old and infirm people go their own messages before going home to dig the garden and cut the hedge, the trimmings of which you can no longer put in the bin unless you have paid the brown bin charges?
Other options included are a reduction in the Council contact centre and the removal of staffed citizen services support (some people wonder if there was ever any there since it was so short staffed that they never made contact of any kind) at the Church Street office; a review of school transport to bring it in line with statutory requirements (that should have been done already); the introduction of a small charge for pupil music tuition (will they be made to whistle for it?); the removal of automated public toilet provision (a disaster from the outset); a reduction in park maintenance (not again, please); and closure of a civic amenity site (where any why?), retaining one for the area.
Proposals also include the removal of the £15 per year Elderly Welfare Grant for residents over the age of 67; the merging of six bowling clubs with two sites retained; removal of secondary school registration time (it must take ages now there are so many pupils who don’t turn up for school), and a reduction in modern apprenticeship investment.
In addition, savings have been proposed from a number of Council teams, including ICT, Asset Management and Organisational Development. These “teams” are beyond the ken of most of the public.
No decision will be made on any option until the budget meeting (most of them will already have been made in secret meetings to which the public will not have access).
The Council’s Chief Executive, Peter Hessett, left, said: “The financial outlook for our organisation remains extremely challenging but we are firmly focused on taking steps to ensure West Dunbartonshire Council remains sustainable now and in the future.
“We know our residents rely on the services we provide, and it goes without saying that we are doing all we can to protect them, as well as jobs.
“The fact remains that the cost of delivering those services greatly exceeds the income we receive from the Scottish Government and other sources. This means there is no option other than looking to reduce spending.
“I have no doubt that many of these potential savings will be difficult to hear, both for the communities we serve and colleagues across the Council. Please be assured that we remain committed to delivering the best service we possibly can for residents with the resources available to us.”
Peter, before the cock crows or the council meets, there will be many lies told and much obfuscation embarked upon. Just ask the First Minister. Have you informed the police yet that there will be a meeting on March 5 and have you made arrangements for extra stewards aka bouncers to be on duty that day to keep the pennsioners in their place? There is a precedent for this.
Further detail on each of the savings options is available to read on the Council’s website here: https://wdccmis.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/cmis5/Meetings/tabid/73/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/410/Meeting/9024/Committee/572/Default.aspx
Top of page picture: Members of the Labour administration debating previous cuts at a meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council.
Folks should be clear the council is not viable. Big money pension entitlements that no one else gets, inefficiency, wastefulness and lax procurement. It all adds up.
But it’s been like this for years regardless of whatever political party has been in office.
A wee bird recently admitted that roof repairs through the DLO cost around twice as much as what is paid in the market. Of course housing tenants end up paying for this inefficiency. A bit like the rate payers who are now going to have to stump up too.
And so in combination with soaring council taxes the quest is now on to see what can be sold off to keep the gravy train going. Dalmuir Golf Course to housing developers being one option under consideration.
But that’s the way that it went in Detroit USA when city hall went bust and they ended up cutting all the pensions and selling off assets like museums, buildings etc.
But hey, listening to the politicos it’s always someone else to blame for the problem.