Surprise announcement - council under budget

The council - in the money?

THE council has managed to save £7million this year, coming under budget.

Highland Council's surprise annoucement will be confirmed in a report to the resources committee on Wednesday which gives members a near-final position on the revenue budget with the exact figure for 2010/11 presented to council on Thursday 23rd June.

The local authority has been cutting jobs and services agreeing £17.5million of cuts in February this year.

It put a plan to axe 344 part-time classroom assistants on hold earlier but is revisiting the proposals after a public outcry and a consultation which ended this week. The issue is due to be reconsidered by the council on 23rd June.

Councillor Carolyn Wilson, resources chairman, says the projected underspend will place the local authority in a strong position to meet the increasing funding pressures its faces.

“This is really good news for the council and is a tribute to the rigorous and effective financial management of our revenue budget by both members and services," she said.

"There are some pretty tough times ahead and the underspend gives us the scope to better meet the pressures that we will inevitably face and protect frontline services.

“The underspend will increase our balances and therefore put the council in a much stronger position to deal with any one-off costs or emergencies that may arise in future. Balances are important to give the council capacity to deal with unplanned expenditure such as severe weather events.”