A REPORT is due to come before Clackmannanshire Council tomorrow (Thursday) outlining proposals for the 2015/16 budget and ways to make savings in coming years.

The paper, which has to get the green light from elected members, is a budget update which covers the local authority’s financial outlook and the cumulative indicative funding gap, which stands at approximately £22 million to 2017/18.

Within the document it seeks agreement that compulsory redundancy may be utilised as ‘one of a number of mechanisms to reduce the council’s establishment within the development of an overarching workforce strategy’.

It also outlines illustrative officer savings proposals – using the same stop, reduce, charge, change framework as in previous years – and looks for permission to undertake a public consultation on these and the alternative operational model being suggested.

The council’s chief executive, Elaine McPherson, said the report is the first stage in an ongoing discussion.

She commented: “Like all other councils, we face significant challenges to balance its budget over the coming years.

“No decisions on how this will be achieved have been made yet, and the council paper reflects illustrative proposals by officers.

“It will be for elected members to make decisions and the report being presented on Thursday represents one stage in an ongoing discussion and consultation process.” The SNP group at the council has already voiced opposition to some of the proposals within the report and said it intends to consult with unions, and the wider community, in order to inform the budget process.

However, committee convenors have made it clear to council officers that certain proposals are unacceptable as they are ‘contrary to both local and national policy commitments’.

A spokesperson said: “This includes; changing the model for providing access to nursery teachers, cuts to specific voluntary groups, ceasing to fund Clackmannanshire Business and tourism and the introduction of charges for on and off street parking in Alloa.

“The SNP has a strong record in standing up for working people and this includes a policy of no compulsory redundancies in local government.

“The SNP administration in the council wishes to make it clear that it does not intend to pursue a policy of compulsory redundancies and will not support any budget proposals which seek to do so.” Leader of the opposition, councillor Bobby McGill, said the Labour group understands the difficult position the council is in and acknowledges it will have to look at the services it can and cannot sustain.

However, he explained they were angry to be in this position, with so many savings to be found, and that action to reduce the deficit hadn’t been taken in previous years.

He said: “The last three years we have found that the administration have used our reserves, rather than take any sort of decision required to take us forward, like other councils have been doing.” Mr McGill said there are many things that could have been done to alleviate the problems and that his group was against compulsory redundancies – pointing out staff have already taken a three per cent pay cut last year to prevent such measures.

He added: “The last thing we want to see is compulsory redundancies, let’s make that quite clear.” The councillor explained he was concerned with the principle of ‘where we are’ and said: “I’m sorry, I mean, after three years really having a go at them [the SNP] about what they were doing, I’m not going to give them a blank cheque and sign up to what they are doing just now.”