This budget was good for the people of Argyll and Bute today – but lacks foresight for tomorrow.

The towns will have huge capital spending – and per head of population there is much more Argyll and Bute Council funding to be spent in the south than the north. There are also appalling failures to take real concerns about long-term employment and investment.

However, overall and with huge reservations, the majority of SNP Councillors were able to support spending that will make an incredible difference to everyday life in the short term.

It must be noted that the budget was made possible thanks to the hard work of constituency councillors and the support of the Scottish Government. And brought to you by spending cash that was put aside to use to make all of our futures secure.

Draft proposals for the budget were disappointing, but over the last two weeks we have lobbied hard to make sure the council heard the priorities of the people of Argyll and Bute, and they listened.

These proposals stand us in good stead for taking over the administration in May as they are in line with some of the priorities in our manifesto.

Roads and education have always been our agenda and we are pleased that the administration finally agree with this, by making provisions for these vital assets of the authority. However most of the school’s on the Liberal Independent Tory closure list are not. As Councillor Morton said – ‘we wanted to invest in our town schools’. This leaves a huge gap in the budget for rural schools. Achaleven, in Oban, due to open back up in August, wasn’t even included on the list.

Councillor Walsh, in his long lists of well-deserved thank yous speech, forgot to mention that his biggest benefactor was the Scottish Government who will be giving the local authority many millions to deliver their budget.

n fact the only project he brought forward in Oban will be fully funded by the Scottish Government, as will, to a lesser extent, the budgets for projects in Campbeltown and Dunoon.

Many of the priorities and achievement in this administration have been made possible because of partnership working with the Scottish Government. The SNP group in Kilmory is working with our colleagues in The Scottish Parliament to ensure that things are getting done.

It is great news, that thanks to Holyrood, that we will get cash for our schools and funding for all those things that are vitally important to make us resilient in the coming months and years.

There is no doubt that the legacy of the SNP in this dying council is that schools are improved and remain open, savings that we insisted on five years ago have grown – just in time to be used on this the rainy days. For example without a Scottish Government bail out last year this authority would be, by their own admission, in trouble now.

We are delighted that roads, schools and youth employment which are key priorities for the Scottish Government have been addressed in the council’s budget.

However there are concerns that there may be a bit of ‘wizardry’ on the figures.

Spending a pot of savings on election sweeteners for Helensburgh will undoubtedly come back to haunt the next administration.

There are of course huge projects missing that will be identified in the SNP’s manifesto. Projects that are fundamental to the future infrastructure and sustainability of our people.

Year after year council leader Cllr Walsh brings a whole pile of promises forward on budget day and it is only through time we see the harsh realities of reckless promises.

We will now begin our scrutiny of every detail. it is only then that we will see what will have to be broken in order to deliver these plans. it is such a shame we have to work like this but sadly in the last few years major changes have been sneaked through. For example the loss of school cooks, graveyard staff, bus services, primary schools, care for people who are disabled, elderly, all coming forward without any real consultation.

Without any presentation this year by officers on the detail of the budget and absolutely no time given for debate, Councillor Walsh’s proposals had an easy ride though the Council but the consequences of where he has taken the funding from and lack of any foresight with making allowances for inflation could cost us all dear.

There is now a need for close scrutiny of how these proposals are implemented. However, in a council which runs away from any scrutiny or any value for money information this may be very difficult.

Councillor Robert Macintyre, SNP group leader