At yesterday’s City Council Budget meeting, the Liberal Democrat Group’s amendments to the City Council’s proposed revenue and capital budgets proposed : * A cut of up to £6 in the Council Tax bills for residents – the Liberal Democrats were the only group to propose a cut in the Council Tax, to assist hard-pressed council [...]
Archive for the ‘Budget’ Category
Dundee City Council Budget : An opportunity lost
Posted: February 10, 2012 in Budget, Dundee City CouncilOur budget priorities : Pupils before Council Offices
Posted: February 3, 2012 in Budget, Dundee City CouncilCllr Helen Dick and I have now submitted to the City Council Liberal Democrat proposals to improve the council’s Revenue and Capital Budgets. We will have amendments to both the revenue budget and the capital budget at the Budget Meeting next Thursday but will look carefully at the ideas coming from the other political [...]
Our schools deserve better than a Sixty Minute Makeover
Posted: January 27, 2012 in Ancrum Road Primary School, Blackness Primary School, Budget, Dundee City CouncilI have today highlighted my concerns about aspects of the proposed Dundee City Council Capital Budget and urged that there be a cross-party discussion about ways to improve the proposals to benefit the city’s schools. There’s much to welcome in the draft capital budget and in particular the proposal to build new primary schools in [...]
As recently reported in the Courier, around £3.4 million of further budget cuts are to be considered by the SNP-run administration on Dundee City Council. As I indicated in the Courier, I would take issue with the claim that the grant settlement is better than anticipated. Anyone looking objectively at the actual settlements announced by [...]
Dear Fraser, Today the coalition government has announced a budget that will return the UK to sustainable and balanced economic growth and which puts helping Alarm Clock Britain at its heart. We are increasing the income tax threshold by £630 to £8105; lifting hundreds of thousands of low income earners out of paying income tax [...]
At yesterday’s City Council Policy & Resources Committee at which the City Council’s budget was set, on behalf of the Liberal Democrats, I seconded a motion from Cllr George Regan on behalf of the Labour Group, that would have seen the SNP cuts-hit education budget increased by £376 000 over SNP proposals. This proposal would [...]
I was on Wave 102 (click ‘play’ above to listen) and Radio Tay news today about the council budget, again making the point that there was merit in all-party discussions with our Head Teachers to reach the best possible solution for management arrangements in our schools. Having discussed proposals from the Labour Group with Cllr [...]
Call for budget meeting to be postponed to allow all party discussions with Head Teachers
Posted: February 2, 2011 in Budget, Dundee City CouncilAs reported in tonight’s Evening Telegraph, I called this morning called for next Thursday’s City Council Policy & Resources Meeting at which the Council Tax is set to be postponed to allow proper and all-party discussions to take place over alternatives to SNP proposals to dramatically cut the number of Depute Head Teachers in Dundee schools. Dundee [...]
As reported in tonight’s Evening Telegraph, I have made clear that it is about time the City Council’s SNP administration took a report to committee outlining all the options it was considering to meet the Council’s budget shortfall – and to also indicate which were the options the administration proposed to take forward, and which [...]
As reported in today’s Courier, the Liberal Democrats on Dundee City Council have decided that, as presently constituted, the so-called Changing for the Future Board, is not something we will be prepared to support and, as Group Leader, I will not attend the Board’s meetings. At last Monday’s Policy & Resources Committee, the Labour Group [...]
Public expenditure, public waste
Posted: August 15, 2010 in Budget, Dundee City Council, Tavish Scott MSPOn Friday at lunchtime, Dundee City Council sneaked out a press release about budget cuts and its proposed way forward (“Estimated savings of 40 million needed over three years”), together with a report that will go before the Council’s Policy & Resources Committee a week tomorrow. I say “sneaked out” because the timing of the [...]
The “Evening Telegraph” tonight covered the challenging situation facing Dundee City Council in relation to its future budgets. Today, the City Council’s Chief Executive has confirmed to him that he is to bring a report about the 2011/12 council budget to the City Council’s Policy and Resources Committee on 23rd August. I had asked Chief [...]
The Emergency Budget : measures that pay for the past and plan for the future
Posted: June 26, 2010 in Budget, Liberal DemocratsAfter the longest and deepest recession since the Second World War, last week’s Budget has set out a five year plan to rebuild the British economy based on the Government’s values of responsibility, freedom and fairness. It shows how the Government will make the tough choices required to carry out Britain’s deficit reduction plan [...]
I attended the City Council Audit & Risk Management Committee today and asked questions about the extent of moves towards shared services given the financial challenges facing the council and on car parking income – seriously short of budget target. There is considerable concern amongst opposition councillors – including myself – about the lack of [...]
Responding to Alistair Darling’s Budget, Nick Clegg said: “This Budget was a political dodge not an economic plan. “Britain needed a Budget that gave us honesty in spending and fairness in tax, we have got neither. “Labour is in denial, while the Conservatives are talking tough to cover up that they only offer more [...]
Today’s activities – and SNP budget disaster
Posted: February 11, 2010 in Budget, Community Spirit, Dundee City CouncilThis evening, after a busy surgery at Blackness Primary School, I attended a meeting of the Community Spirit group that serves the northern part of the West End Ward – Ancrum, Pentland, Cleghorn and Milnbank and surrounding streets. There was a very interesting presentation by the SACRO Youth Justice Service. This afternoon’s City Council budget [...]
And … Wednesday …
Posted: January 27, 2010 in Budget, Park Place Nursery School, Park Place Primary School, St Joseph's Primary School, West End Festival 2010A busy day – including : * The first ever Board meeting for the West End Primary/Nursery Schools project – St Joseph’s Primary, Park Place Primary and Park Place Nursery Schools – took place. It is envisaged that a pre-planning application process, including an exhibition for parents, carers and the local community generally, will take [...]
After the last meeting of the City Council’s Policy and Resources Committee, I wrote to the Council Leader suggesting that all-party informal discussion between group leaders on the 2010/11 revenue budget takes place. I indicated that “as a City Council, facing a significant financial challenge and I think it is in the interests of the [...]
Dear Fraser Today the Labour Party confirmed that they have run out of ideas and have condemned us to years of unemployment and a decade of debt. Their pick-and-mix budget of recycled announcements will do nothing to get us out of this recession and nothing that will help the poorest who are being hit hardest [...]
Budgets – national and local
Posted: February 4, 2009 in Budget, Dundee City Council, Scottish ParliamentI am pleased that the Scottish Parliament has finally agreed its Budget – partly, of course, because it lifts the uncertainty that was hanging over the ability of our local authority (and the 31 others across Scotland) in being able to set its own budget a week tomorrow. The degree of willingness to find consensus [...]
Scottish Budget – Liberal Democrats gain concessions from Scottish Government
Posted: February 3, 2009 in Budget, Tavish Scott MSPTavish Scott MSP, Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, wrote to party members this afternoon on how the Liberal Democrats have been working positively to achieve improvements to the Scottish Budget. Here is part of what he wrote : “You may remember that I was clear that the Budget proposed by the SNP was not [...]
Last night’s cross-party discussions on the Dundee City Council Budget for 2009/10 were both productive and useful. It is clear that all parties on the Council wish to see the Council Tax held to as reasonable a figure as possible and hopefully a freeze in the charge at 2008/9 levels. The city council’s [...]
This afternoon saw the City Council set both its capital programme and also its revenue budget & council tax for 2008/9. It was the 7th budget meeting I have attended as an elected member of Dundee City Council and was easily the least “raucous” thus far, with the Labour/Liberal Democrat administration’s budget being approved unanimously [...]
Well, half the day was wasted in trying to drive to Stirling, failing to get much past Perth and then trying to get back to Dundee! When I finally did get back to Dundee, contacted Planning & Transportation regarding renewed flooding at Pinegrove’s Perth Road entrance. Also reported that the grid at the bottom of [...]
