DUNDEE’S council chiefs have insisted they’re minimising the impact that cutbacks are having on the public — three months into their new budget.
The Tele caught up with the authority’s SNP administration ahead of the summer recess to assess what work has been done since it revealed £23 million worth of budget savings for 2016/17.
Councillor Willie Sawers, who’s the administration’s deputy leader and finance spokesman, says the council has been working through the decisions it made back in February with areas like staffing and grounds maintenance affected.
But he insists there’s still plenty of good going on, with significant progress made at the Waterfront redevelopment and in the work of the Fairness Commission in the last few months.
Mr Sawers, told the Tele: “Our council officers are working all the time to implement a number of budget cuts, which are all going to plan.
“The implementation of redundancies is an ongoing process, and is being worked through at the timescale we had anticipated.”
Spending in ground maintenance was cut by £664,000 in the budget, and this week was blamed for contributing to more grass fires in the city.
But Mr Sawers said: “I think the cutbacks which were put forward in the ground maintenance budget was a different way of working, which requires less maintenance.
“I don’t think there has been a negative impact in that respect.
“Going through every aspect of council services to identify efficiency savings, maintenance of green space was one area we really could save a substantial amount of money, and we have put that into practice.”
The Fairness Commission report, launched last month, set out a series of 56 recommendations to help tackle poverty and deprivation across Dundee.
Mr Sawers said he hoped an action plan on how to tackle the various recommendations would be put forward on members’ return from the summer break.
Touching on the council’s achievements so far this year, he added: “A huge ongoing project for Dundee is the regeneration of the Waterfront.
“People can see the V&A museum rising from the ground, along with the work at the railway station, and that is a fantastic achievement.
“There’s been a significant commercial investment in the Waterfront and the council hopes there will be a large amount of jobs to come from that.”
Meanwhile, Councillor Richard McCready — who leads the authority’s opposition Labour group — insists the fall-out from this year’s budget is still going on behind the scenes.
He said: “There has been a huge criticism of the way the budget has been implemented by the unions who represent the council workers.
“They are unhappy about the budget, and feel the SNP is not effectively dealing with the local government workers’ unions.
“Members’ pay and conditions are being undermined to the point where they are essentially being asked to work longer for less pay, and be paid less for working weekends.”
Mr McCready has called for the Fairness Commission to be acted upon sooner rather than later to “lead us out of poverty”.
He added: “The council also needs to take the lead in paying our own staff living wage and urging others to do the same — lead by example.
“But it also needs to engage with other businesses too, perhaps businesses we don’t deal with directly, and urge them to pay the living wage too.”