- Western Isles Council estimates a £6 million deficit over the coming two years. It will use a final £1.1 million compensation payout for the £23 million the council lost in the 1991 collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International to ease the pain to a degree. Other savings including reduced employment terms for staff, means it is seeking £4/9 million in cuts.
- Nothing is off the table though the authority has moved some things about. Anything that gets spared has to be replaced with an alternative reduction to make savings.
- The council is considering axing the Barra to Benbecula plane service altogether during the present round of budget cuts leaving islanders facing an arduous journey by ferry to get anywhere elsewhere in the Western Isles. The linked Benbecula to Stornoway route could be reduced to just three days a week.
The authority is annoyed the NHS pays nothing towards the subsidy for flights which are heavily used by the health board and hospital patients. High fares result in many empty seats and planes are generally only a third full highlighted a recent review.
A report highlighted withdrawing the services risked “reduced productivity” for business and public sector travellers as well as “greater discomfort and having to spend more nights away” for health patients. It would also create “reduced confidence among what are recognised as fragile communities in the Uists and Barra.”
- Proposed cuts to community transport services has caused an outcry across Uist and Barra where volunteer networks operate such services taken for granted elsewhere.
- There are concerns that vulnerable groups in the community such as the elderly, disabled, and children with additional needs will be badly hit by the cuts.
- Controversial plans to phase out itinerant teachers for PE, music and art in primary schools are on the cards. The authority insists it is not legally required to provide the specialist teaching for these subjects.
- Creating virtual classrooms and phase in E-
learning via internet links over a two year period offers more subject choices to pupils in secondary schools and could save £1 million says the council. The idea is based on a specialist teacher in one school giving lessons via a remote tele- link to pupils in other parts of the islands. The council insists if it doesn’t work then the £1 million saving has to come from elsewhere in education. - Council seeks to avoid compulsory redundancies -
it aims for early retirement and voluntary redundancies. It is going to be “challenging” to cut the teaching workforce without compulsory redundancies. Some vacancies would be unfilled. Freezing vacant posts means lost earnings to the local economy. - Unions warn that around 100 jobs are at risk across the Western Isles economy as a result of the cuts. They reckon about 50 posts within the Comhairle could be affected. The council does not accept the union’s figures. Unison highlights the council has been consulting on the cuts for months but has failed to clarify how many posts are targeted.