Far fewer members of the public have had their say in this year’s Argyll and Bute Council budget consultation – but the authority’s depute leader has defended a change in the way the council asked people for their views.
Around 1,500 people contributed to the council’s Planning Our Future consultation as the authority prepares to set its 2017-18 spending plans next month.
That compares to more than five thousand who took part in a much more detailed consultation exercise 12 months ago, when the authority gave details of more than 140 specific areas in which spending could potentially be cut.
Helensburgh councillor James Robb criticised this year’s consultation exercise in November, labelling it a “tick box exercise” which was “undeserving of any serious comment and an insult to the good people of Argyll and Bute”.
Depute leader and Helensburgh councillor Ellen Morton told the Advertiser: “Last year, when we had a very detailed consultation on all the potential savings options, we were criticised for giving far too much information.
“This year we’ve deliberately taken a different approach. We’re not publishing a great big list of possible cuts, like we did last time. This time we’ve asked people to identify the things that are most important to them.
“There’s no perfect way to run a consultation. Some people don’t want to read lots and lots of papers, others worry they’re not getting enough information.”
The council meets to set its 2017-18 spending plans, service charges and council tax levels on Thursday, February 23.
“Many people last year felt they didn’t have time to wade through the detail of all the savings options, and a lot of folk thought they weren’t well-enough informed on detailed operational matters to be able to make an informed decision.
“The other aspect of last year’s consultation was that we asked people for their views on far more savings options than were needed, so that people could say ‘I could live with this cut, but not that one’.
“Last year council officers were asked to come forward with savings that, in purely factual terms, they could deliver. That then led to criticism that we had brought forward things we were not going to do.
“In the discussion stage last year I appealed to other councillors not to put absolutely everything out to consultation, because I knew there were at least half a dozen savings options we were not going to take.
“This time we’ve deliberately gone for a shorter consultation with less operational detail and a much more ‘broad brush’ approach, asking people to identify their priorities, and then we’ll see what we can do from there.”
Thie year the council faces a 4.4 per cent cut in the funding it receives from the Scottish Government, though finance minister Derek Mackay, unveiling the government’s draft budget last month, pledged that additional money would be made available for local services through avenues other than giving the cash straight to councils.
Article originally published by Helensburgh Advertiser
