Independents vow to fight cuts to primary school day
The group of independent councillors claim to have found a way to slice £3.2 million from Highland Council’s budget, without cutting half an hour from the primary school day.
Leader councillor Carolyn Wilson said her group’s alternative budget would be published on Monday.
Around £64 million needs to be shaved from the budget within the next four years.
Proposals include plans to shave 30 minutes a day off teaching time for pupils in primary schools.
Councillor Wilson said her group would unanimously oppose the administration’s budget cut proposal, saying it would "devastating" for local communities and schools - and could see the cost of child care soar to more than £100-per-month for working parents who have one child in primary school.
She said: "We have got our alternative budget. It was a lot of work and it was difficult to do but we have found a way of making savings without taking that time away from the school day. It can be done. We have also found ways to avoid cutting the budget of High Life Highland. We will do everything in our power to fight these cuts to protect vital frontline services such as education, swimming pools, libraries and winter gritting."
More than 4,000 people, plus 193 community groups, completed the administration’s budget consultation survey online this month.
Administration members have three weeks to read through the thousands of comments and suggestions from the public.
Their budget cut proposals will be published on December 11th and members of the full council will meet on December 18th to agree the final budget for the next four years.
Councillor Wilson added: "We all agreed at a meeting today that the cuts are ill-thought out and must to be challenged."
Budget leader Maxine Smith said the administration was listening and taking in everything that the public was saying. She told members of the Skye, Ross and Cromarty Area Committee at Dingwall County buildings on Monday that the group was unlikely to press ahead with proposals to charges for car parking in Highland towns given a raft of opposition from those who responded to the consultation.
She said: "There are seven areas in the consultation papers that refer to car parking. But we have received quite a lot of information from the public about that so I do not think we will see that happen. "
