Argyll & Bute Council sees third consecutive unanimous acceptance of its budget amid sense of positive collective responsibility

Yes, Argyll and Bute Council’s unanimously approved budget has frozen Council Tax for the second year running. But we knew it would. Not to do so would have been financial madness, throwing away the grant support from the Scottish Government for agreement to freeze the tax and requiring a rise in Council Tax of around 7%-8%. These are not the days for such a rise.

The real achievement of the Council is not the freezing of the Council Tax but the attitudes and processes whcih have made it possible for all shades of political opinion to set aside their narrow interests and work together constructively in the interests of Argyll.

The very aura of the Council Chamber during the budget meeting was one of mutual support and collective responsibility. It was serious. It was listening. It was alive to what it is on the way to becoming. If only Holyrood was half as mature, Scotland would not have had to endure the blinkered and old fashioned party politicking that saw the Scottish Government’s budget recently downed on its first outing.

Councillor Ellen Morton, Leader of the Opposition followed Council Leader Dick Walsh’s opening presentation and moving of the motion to approve the budget. Confidently on top of her brief, she dealt only with the issues of general concern to the Council in the framing of the budget and engaged in absolutely no party points scoring. How long is it since anywhere in the UK has seen this sort of grown up, engaged behaviour- which was reflected in the words and attitudes of every Councillor who spoke?

Councillor Morton and other Councillors paid particular tribute to the Council Leader, Dick Walsh, in the openness with which he had conducted the cross-party discussions that had led to this highly constructive outcome. When one such tribute was paid, Councillors on all sides of the chamber banged their desks in approval.

So what did they do with the budget? The budget allocation of £257 million for 2009-2010 was a tight one charged to dealing with difficult circumstances.

Councillors agreed that their unanimous priority was the protection of the most vulnerable citizens in Argyll and this was evident in the range of strategies adopted, one of which was the allocation of £2.66mllion to affordable housing.

Councillors have agreed to draw upon an additional £1.7million of Council reserves to balance the budget, enabling them to reject proposed savings on matters of significant community importance. This means that, among other decisions:

• an additional £150,000 per year is allocated to help meet growth in demand for adult care services
• the much admired small respite care home in Lochgilphead, Fyneview, is reprieved, pending a review
• the part-time local libraries at Cardross, Rosneath, Garelochhead, Cove and Tarbert are similarly reprieved pending review
• mini buses uwill continue to be provided for non-statutory pupil transportation in Tiree, Islay and Tobermory
• the residential activity weeekend at Cowal Primary School will continue to receive funding
• Community Learning and Youth Work will not see a reduction in the hours od sessional staff
• the 50% reduction to the music instructors resource budget has been restored
• businesses will benefit by no increse being made to the charges for commercial waste and commercial recycling
• there will be continued support for a number of leisure facilities throughout Argyll and Bute, including the MacTaggart Centre, Atlantis Leisure, Mid Argyll Community Enterprise, Camanachd Association, Scottish Rugby Union and Argyll Active
• there will be continued provision of community and housing support on Argyll’s Atlantic Islandsof Coll, Tiree, Jura and North Mull
• external organisations will not, at this time, be charged for Streetscene services for a number of major events which bring considerable benefits to the area. These include the Cowal Gathering, Tarbert’s Scottish Series yacht racing, Connect (cancelled for 2009 but which may run smaller events), Oban Hogmanay party, Crinan Classic Boat Festival, Rothesay Games and other events in Tobermory and Helensburgh
• public loos at Ulva Ferry, Kilmun, Glendaruel and Tayvallich will be kept open

The amount of £1.7million taken from accumulated reserves to enable the additional allocations described above leaves the Council with its stable internal contingency of 1.5% of its budget, or £3,873,000. This will remain as the contingency to support next year’s budget.

The word perhaps most used in the meeting – by the Leader, Councillor Walsh, by Depute Leader, Councillor Robert MacIntyre who seconded the motion to approve the budget, by Councillor Morton and by almost every Councillor who spoke, was – ‘challenging’. This was applied to the nature of the current and coming times. It means that there will continue to be hard choices and hard decisions to be made. No one will be surprised about that.

The last word here has to be a repetition of the first word – that Argyll is seeing the evolution of a confident, informed, collaborative and responsible council refusing to allow itself to be derailed by outdated party political posturing.