Dumfries and Galloway councillors are to hold a special seminar in a bid to come up with solutions to plug a huge funding gap.
The council is facing a £50m shortfall over the next five years due to prolonged inflationary pressures and local authorities being short-changed by the Scottish Government.
The matter was discussed at Thursday’s full council meeting when finance bosses indicated that council reserves would have to be used to help balance the books and maintain key services.
Paul Garrett, the head of finance and procurement, told the meeting that a review of all reserves was undertaken recently.
He said: “There was £11.5m that was reported at the end of the last financial year in terms of unallocated balances that are
available.
“That’s beyond the two per cent that we hold as a recurring amount at a minimum level.
“So, that £11.5m is available to support what we need to do going forward.
“The review report that goes out to the next FPT (finance, procurement and transformation) committee releases another £3m, which will enhance that figure to £14.5m.”
In the financial report tabled at the meeting, finance officers blamed the precarious position on inflation, rising costs, and a “sustained reduction in core funding over an extended period” from Holyrood.
Annandale North Councillor Gail Macgregor, leader of the Conservative group, said: “This is a pretty depressing report because we’re in what I think is now my 15th year of consecutive cuts from government.
“Those of us who have been sitting here for a number of years have not had a budget where we’ve not had to make savings, or a medium to long term financial strategy that hasn’t looked pretty grim.
“I think it’s incumbent on all 43 of us to continue to lobby Scottish Government to put local government back on their agenda. I don’t feel at the moment that they think what we do as local councillors for our communities is terribly important.
“In terms of our transformation programme we’ve got a lot of really good work that really needs to be done around our digital strategy, transport, infrastructure, our transition to net zero, social care, and all the brilliant things we do down here – but we’re simply not being given enough money to do it.”
Council co-leader Stephen Thompson, head of the SNP group, called for a seminar to be held for councillors where they can gather more information and tackle the problem
in-depth.
He said: “There’s no doubt it’s challenging enough making the case for local government with the Scottish Government, but the factors outwith the control of either of us are inflation and the cost of energy.
“These seem to be the pressing issues that are affecting everybody, no matter what you think about councils or government at the moment.
Councillors agreed for a seminar to be organised on this issue and for plans to be developed to address the funding gap.
