OIC budget setting moves forward
Councillors this week have recommended Orkney Islands Council’s budget for the next financial year.
After a lengthy process, and hours of discussions within the council chamber, council tax levels again look likely to be frozen at current levels, and it is proposed that there is no rise in ferry fares for the year ahead.
Councillors have been involved in detailed discussions over many months with OIC’s senior management team as part of the budget setting process.
On Tuesday, members of the policy and resources committee agreed that £81.8 million should be spent on running council services in 2015-16 – an increase of £1.1 million on last year.
Spending within the authority looks set to be cut by £800,000, without redundancies being made, and a total of £3.76 million looks to be taken from the council’s strategic reserve fund and spent on services, if agreed at full council level later this month.
Councillors also recommended to freeze council tax levels for the eighth year running, with the Band D rate continuing to be £1,037, in line with an agreement between the Scottish Government and Scotland’s 32 local authorities.
Other key points include a one per cent increase in funding support for the voluntary sector for the fifth year running, and that charges for council services should increase by at least 2% in 2015-16, with the exception of Orkney Ferries fares, school meals, fees for residential and home care, planning applications and building warrants, licensing, and ship sanitation certification.
When it came to making efficiencies, measures recommended by the committee would also result in a reduction of the equivalent of 4.5 full time posts within the OIC. It is anticipated that this can be achieved without the need for compulsory redundancy, with the majority of the posts currently vacant.
The policy and resources committee’s recommendations will now be considered at a budget-setting meeting of the full council on Thursday, February 12.
More details in The Orcadian, on Thursday