A report to Argyll and Bute Council’s Policy and Resources Committee makes for grim reading this week, having been updated to show that the funding gap in the council’s budget is now expected to be ‘between £18.2 million and £39.9 million, with a gap of between £4 million and £13.1 million in 2017-18’.
The council will not know what money it is to receive from the Scottish Government until December, but regardless of what the final sum is, it will mean some very hard choices for the council, which is caught between a rock and a hard place. This is why it is important that Argyll residents contact their local councillor to have their say on services and how and where cutbacks could be made.
Last night Oban councillors held a surgery in the Corran Halls to meet concerned constituents. It is important that we all engage with the council – they work for us but we can’t complain about decisions they make if we don’t talk to them about issues and services that are important to us so they can make informed choices.