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Last Thursday the City Council held its Budget meeting. The meeting took four hours and heard from a number of interesting delegations. Clearly, a number of trade unions representing council staff are very unhappy at how they have been treated in this process.
Even with the reduced budget from the Scottish Government the budget setting process is a question of priorities.
The whole process of setting the budget has been entirely unsatisfactory. The secretive Changing for the Future Board has been a failure. The SNP Administration will point out that Primary Headteachers were able to change some of the proposals for cuts in the primary education sector. It is entirely unclear as to how this process works. What is the forum for trade unions or associations to make their views known? How can trade unions make their views known when they were specifically excluded thanks to the votes of the SNP Group and the Lord Provost.
Labour put forward amendments which would have cut some spending but which would have increased investment in education which has been cut by the SNP Administration.
I am disappointed that the Administration on the City Council did not listen to Labour's reasoned amendment to their budget. It is clear that setting the budget is about setting priorities. Labour's priority was getting as much money as possible into the education system, investing in our future by investing in the children and young people of Dundee. The SNP Administration want to invest in alcohol, in sandwiches for councillors and highly-paid officers, in cars to drive councillors around the city, in ineffective ways of subsidising bus companies and in a slush fund for the Chief Executive. The choice was stark; invest in booze or invest in bairns.
It is clear that council employees are very unhappy with the changes imposed on them whether in schools, in social work or in our libraries and museums. It is also clear that many members of the public are unhappy with the changes to services pushed through last night. The Labour Group will be keeping an eye on the impacts that these cuts have on services to the people of Dundee. We will do our best to defend Dundee's public services in the face of these cuts.
Even with the reduced budget from the Scottish Government the budget setting process is a question of priorities.
The whole process of setting the budget has been entirely unsatisfactory. The secretive Changing for the Future Board has been a failure. The SNP Administration will point out that Primary Headteachers were able to change some of the proposals for cuts in the primary education sector. It is entirely unclear as to how this process works. What is the forum for trade unions or associations to make their views known? How can trade unions make their views known when they were specifically excluded thanks to the votes of the SNP Group and the Lord Provost.
Labour put forward amendments which would have cut some spending but which would have increased investment in education which has been cut by the SNP Administration.
I am disappointed that the Administration on the City Council did not listen to Labour's reasoned amendment to their budget. It is clear that setting the budget is about setting priorities. Labour's priority was getting as much money as possible into the education system, investing in our future by investing in the children and young people of Dundee. The SNP Administration want to invest in alcohol, in sandwiches for councillors and highly-paid officers, in cars to drive councillors around the city, in ineffective ways of subsidising bus companies and in a slush fund for the Chief Executive. The choice was stark; invest in booze or invest in bairns.
It is clear that council employees are very unhappy with the changes imposed on them whether in schools, in social work or in our libraries and museums. It is also clear that many members of the public are unhappy with the changes to services pushed through last night. The Labour Group will be keeping an eye on the impacts that these cuts have on services to the people of Dundee. We will do our best to defend Dundee's public services in the face of these cuts.
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