Scottish Borders Local Association

Job cuts revealed in council budget

COUNCIL chiefs are slashing 75 jobs as they bid to save millions in the forthcoming financial year.

But they hope to kickstart a recession recovery by ploughing government cash into building projects across the region.

Leader David Parker this week unveiled his local authority's £265million spending plans for the forthcoming financial year.

With council tax frozen at 2007/08 levels, as prescribed by the concordat with the Scottish Government, savings had to be made across the departments to balance the books.

And it is mainly in staffing where most cash will be saved. The equivalent of 27 full time posts will be axed in education, 11 from technical services, 11 between corporate resources and planning, with a further 25 jobs being lost across the other departments.

But the leader predicts this round of job losses won’t be the last.

Mr Parker told the Border Telegraph: “We are in a position that over the next few years there will be a decrease in the number of people we employ.

“Efficiency programmes mean we need to maximise what we get for our money and that will ultimately mean the organisation becomes smaller.

“Spending across the UK is going to get a lot tighter and as a result will mean we will have less money.

“There won’t be widespread redundancies but we will likely see many vacancies not being filled over the coming few years.

“We will work to ensure that as many of these redundancies are voluntary.

“And we will exhaust all opportunities to redeploy staff who will no longer have a position.”

Planning bosses predict a fall of more than £2million in building standards and development management fees over 2009-10 because of the global recession.

And a further £100,000 of income will be lost from property clearance

certificates as development grinds to an almost halt.

But an injection of cash into building projects over the next few months could help turn around the ailing sector.

More than £100 million of accelerated capital cash is being pumped into Scottish local authorities for the forthcoming financial year.

And Scottish Borders Council hope to stimulate the local economy with their £2.4 million share.

Plans are in place to refurbish six school kitchens, including Lilliesleaf, Philiphaugh and Broughton, upgrade Tweedbank Community Centre and Lauder Public Hall, renovate Earlston, Innerleithen and Duns public toilets and buy land for affordable housing in West Linton Greenlaw, Duns, Hawick and Jedburgh.

At Monday’s draft budget launch depute leader Neil Calvert said: “We have worked hard to set this budget in such a way that we maintain and improve our services while delivering the best possible value for money.

“Efficiency savings of £6.4 million have been identified across all

departments, but this does not mean that services will be adversely

affected. Instead, they will be run in a more effective and efficient way.”

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