Thursday, March 01, 2018

For all serious students of the Highland Council budget effects on Nairn - what an opposition Cllr has to say about why they had to make such cuts and charges plus some responses from an Indy Cllr

Update: We've had a little bit of a twitter conversation with Independent Cllr Ben Thomson last night and he made several responses to Emma Knox on his own twitter account. We've copied and pasted them too and they are now included below what Emma Knox said. We did ask the Independent Group for comment but no reply so far.

Anger over the Highland Council budget and the cuts and charges that will affect Nairn seems to be, if anything, increasing rather than dissipating in the town and the hinterland beyond. Thus there is a remarkable amount of public focus on these budget decisions and how it all came about and what if, anything, can be done to still stop parking charges and mitigate other possible negative impacts on Nairn.

With all this in mind we think it appropriate to post a series of comments made by opposition Councillor Emma Knox on twitter today, it is a remarkable tirade and yes, it is a partisan one, but she does seem sure of her facts and figures. Out there on twitter we have asked the Independent Councillors on Highland Council what they have to say about her comments and if they reply then we will only be too happy to publish that too.

Here's what Emma Knox SNP had to say:

The financial settlement for year 2018/2019 shows that the council will receive £439.463m revenue...

This represents a flat cash settlement - the same as they received in 2017/2018 *accounting for inflation*. (ie more actual cash)...

When council tax is added, estimated at £128.2m (including a 3% rise) this gives a revenue budget of £567m...
*One million pounds more than 2017/18* IN REAL TERMS...

Added to this, we have the Scottish Governments Capital grant to the council which is £4.4m MORE than the previous year. A total of £41.305m...

On top of this money they have also been giving money for three flood prevention schemes:

• Smithton & Culloden = £9.03m • Caol & Lochside = £294m • Drumnadrochit = £196m This is another £9.583m...

The Scottish government has NOT reduced or cut the Highland Council money. It has INCREASED it's funding to the Highland Council for year 2018/2019.

Why does the Highland Council now have to find £15m savings???

This is down to bad management and poor leadership of Highland council.

In the auditor’s report for the council in September 2017 the headline figures were that in 2017/18 the Highland Council had an agreed revenue budget of £566m which included 14.3m of savings...

We are moving into 2018/2019 with the same level of savings outstanding. No attempts were made to make any savings, therefore radical changes are now needed...

The Redesign Board has to be stronger and reviews have to be deeper in their scrutiny and delivery...

The accusation directed at the Scottish Government by the Independent-led council is that the Highlands are being neglected and our special circumstances (geography, rurality, remoteness etc) are being ignored...

and the central belt receives all the funding. THIS IS NOT TRUE...

2018/19 Scottish Govt funding levels place the Highlands 5th out of 32 councils, with a 10.3% rise in funding. The four councils above us are all rural..

The Highlands receives 107.8% of the Scottish average council revenue funding (7.8% more for each person in the Highlands.)...

The Highlands is in the top ten of all Scottish councils, with most central belt councils (apart from the most deprived areas of Glasgow) receiving less...

Councils in England have seen their funding cut by 40%-60% over the last 6 years...

From 2017/18 to 2018/19 their funding is again being cut by an average of 5.4% and in year 2019/20 another cut of 14.2% is being imposed thereafter...

So... The Highland Council has received a pretty good settlement from the Scottish Government - above the Scottish average.

Please let everyone know that the problems the Highland council is experiencing now stem from *bad management* and lack of leadership."

Emma Cox is on twitter here. 

We did ask here what a redesign board is and she told us: "The Redesign Board is a cross party committee set up to examine council structures and spending to identify genuine inefficiencies and identify savings. (In theory)."

She has since made the following correction to her figures
"• Caol & Lochside = £294k • Drumnadrochit = £196k"

And here's what Independent Cllr Ben Thompson had to say in response on twitter yesterday
"Point though is the Emma is saying we're £15m over spent. The truth is nothing like that at all as you well know.
This is just totally wrong. Were you at Resources cmt this week to see the budget monitoring? We're nearly on budget with savings delivered, the big exception being, guess what - winter gritting overspend.

Emma, last year we were granted £437m by Scotgov. Inflation is now at 3%. To account for inflation we should have been granted £450m this year. Instead we got £439m. So we're £11m underfunded in real terms."

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Still implies that the council are being forced to find savings in their budget. They may be implementing them a year later than they should have but there is no offer as to where else the savings should be made.

Anonymous said...

I just read her Twitter feed, looks like the ramblings of a crazy woman! I'm a bit scared now....

Anonymous said...

"Facts are chiels that winna ding, An' downa be disputed."
Good for Emma!
Pity that very few journalists are interested in facts. They've been groomed on "spin" for decades.