A host of unpopular budget cuts have been reversed after Stirling councillors agreed to reallocate almost £400,000 of funding.
At a special meeting of Stirling Council last Thursday, councillors approved a motion that reversed the decision to allocate £392,000 to Sistema Scotland to deliver the local Big Noise programmes.
This followed an announcement by the Scottish Government that it would provide £1.5m of funding to Sistema to deliver the Big Noise projects in 2023/24 - although the sum only took into account the original 10 per cent reduction in funding to the project planned by Stirling Council.
The money will be used to reinstate savings that had been agreed by the council at the budget-setting meeting on March 2.
The U-turn will mean:
•No change to the opening times of Fintry and Aberfoyle nurseries
•No increase in non-statutory childcare fees or MECS charges
•No removal of the Springkerse ‘Park and Ride’ bus service
•No reduction in the budgets of the Smith Museum, Stirlingshire Voluntary Enterprise, Stirling Community Enterprise and events including book and science festivals
•No removal of the 100 per cent bulky waste uplift subsidy for over-60s
•No full cost recovery for the Bridge of Allan allotment site
•No reduction to universal youth provision.
As the original decision taken by council was less than six months ago, two thirds of councillors had to agree to revoke it before the new motion could be considered.
Stirling Council leader, Labour councillor Chris Kane, said: “This budget for the coming year was painful to set, but the funding settlement from the Scottish Government left us no option other than to take tough decisions on a range of local services.
“The news of £1.5m of national funding for Big Noise allowed us to revisit a small number of decisions for the coming year in Stirling.
“I recognise that supporters of the services given a reprieve will be relieved, but others will be disappointed at the savings that remain.
“With the ongoing uncertainty of local government finance, it’s important we continue to take steps to secure the council’s long-term sustainability as we look to the 2024/25 budget.
“I want to stress that we remain committed to working with Sistema in delivering the transformative Big Noise programme in Raploch and Fallin and will play a constructive part in talks with the Scottish Government and Sistema to secure long-term funding arrangements.”
Mairead Cameron, co-chair of Fintry Parent Council said: “We’re absolutely delighted that the council have seen sense and reinstated the 8am to 6pm operating hours at Fintry Nursery.
“Working parents in rural villages rely on these longer hours to enable them to continue to work and contribute to society.”
Aberfoyle parent Catherine Cairns added parents were “hugely relieved”.
She added: “Had the cuts gone ahead, we would have either been forced to take our daughter out of Aberfoyle Nursery where she is thriving and building relationships with her future school peers or cut our working hours. Maintaining the current nursery provision means that young working families will not be deterred from moving to the area and will continue to add their valuable contribution to the local community.”
A spokesperson for Bridge of Allan allotments campaigners said: “Plotholders are delighted that common sense has prevailed - but we do worry about what may happen in future.
“For this reason we are considering community management of the allotments as an alternative to council management.”
While Stirling SNP councillors ultimately backed the vote on the minority Labour administration’s motion to U-turn on some of the budget decisions, they decried how the whole process was handled by their political rivals and some of the remaining cuts.
SNP council group leader Scott Farmer lambasted council leader Chris Kane, accusing him of cutting short the special meeting and saying some other unpopular cuts still remained.
The SNP had tried to lodge their own amendment, however this was deemed to be incompetent by the council’s head of governance Julia McAfee and Provost Douglas Dodds (Cons), who chaired the meeting, therefore did not allow it to be considered.
Later, Councillor Farmer said: “The administration stayed the course on plans to cut back on all non-statutory nursery provision to under threes - removing over 50 nursery places and placing additional pressure on working families.
“Funding will also be removed from the council’s parent-family support team, aimed at preventative action to keep family units together and supported.”
