Councillor speaks out on cuts

Following our report on the disappointingly curtailed budget ‘consultation’ held in Brodick Hall before Christmas, Tony Gurney, SNP Councillor for Arran and Ardrossan, has sent us a letter of strong disagreement with North Ayrshire Council’s proposals to cut jobs and services. He gives a view of the budget deficit that is very different from the official explanation and accuses the council of salting away money for political purposes.

The full text of Mr Gurney’s letter follows:

Thank you for your coverage of the NAC budget meeting. Since then I have had many enquiries regarding my amendment to reject the budget and its background. This may be due to the brutal guillotining of debate at the meeting that meant that I was unable to deliver all the figures to the full council. Perhaps I may use your pages to explain the amendment in full.

The reported budget gap, that is the amount received versus the expected outgoings, was presented as £7m. This figure excluded two amounts. First, the budget line ascribing £1M to ‘right-sizing’. Second, the NAC budget for 2010/11 was under-spent to the tune of £5M. Adding these, we can see that NAC’s budget for 2011/12 is only in deficit by £1M. That raises the question of why the Labour Executive of the council find it necessary to squirrel away £6M to fund unnecessary cuts of £7M. Who in their right mind spends six pounds to save seven?

One argument that would be made is that the changes will have long term ramifications to the running of the council. Leaving aside the argument that if the changes need to be made then the ruling Labour councillors should have made them many years ago, we have to examine this claim in light of the other claims that have been made, not least the hysterical trumpeting of a £64M shortfall that was made by the council leader. All claims of future deficits should be seen in this light and taken with more than a pinch of salt. Indeed if the council leader is so sure of the future movements of the economy he should resign immediately and go play the stock market. The rewards would be numerous. If this isn’t the case we can only assume that deficit claims are yet more scare-mongering. This seems particularly possible given that the Scottish Government’s own official forecasts show a steady budget for North Ayrshire Council over the next three years.

For my own part I see no downside to preserving front line jobs for as long as possible. The wages garnered feed back into the local economy and support further jobs while saving unnecessary calls on the public purse.

What, then, is going on? It seems clear that even the wreckers in charge of this council can’t squander £6M on unnecessary ‘re-structuring’. So what will the money (plus any under-spend for financial year 2011/12) be used for?

I will leave it to your readers to make up their own minds, but we may find a clue in the scheduled local election due in May 2012, three months after next year’s budget. A budget where up to £10M may be available to squander on pet projects in marginal wards ahead of the election. If that is the case I look forward to the union funders of the Labour party asking why their members have to lose their jobs today so that Labour councillors can save their jobs next year as much as I look forward to the electorate’s judgement.

Yours,

(signed)

Councillor Tony Gurney, Ardrossan and Arran