Siobhan McMahon MSP

Last month, in the wake of the Scottish Government’s draft budget and the announcement by North Lanarkshire Council of its intention to launch a public consultation on the £73 million worth of savings it is required to make over the next 3 years, I wrote about the damage that cuts on this scale would do to local communities.

The consultation period is now complete, with 3,000 responses received from local households across North Lanarkshire.

Councillors from certain quarters have been quick to criticise the rate of response, but whilst it may represent a low proportion of the overall population, it represents a significant increase on the number of respondents to the Council’s last consultation, and I have no doubt that each and every response will be carefully considered in the Council’s deliberations.

Whilst some will no doubt continue to query the way in which the consultation was conducted, there are more important matters at stake and, as I discuss in a blog on the STV local website, reproduced here, we must not let a debate over the relative merits of the consultation deflect us from discussing why it was necessary in the first place:

“North Lanarkshire Council’s task of saving £73m over the next three years will be a painful process.

But we must not shoot the messenger.

In the wake of this week’s latest round of disappointing employment statistics, Alex Salmond confessed that Scotland’s economy is ‘bumping along the bottom’.

Whilst I welcome this rare outburst of candour from the First Minister, I am disappointed at his failure to offer any credible alternative to the current course of action.

It has become increasingly apparent that, however misguided are the decisions being made at Westminster (and they are very, very misguided), the policies being pursued by this SNP Government are only making things worse.

We can see this in the way that Education Secretary Mike Russell has presided over a 70,000 reduction in full and part time college places.

We can see it in the unprecedented drop in nursing and teacher numbers over the past 5 years.

We can also see it in the way the SNP has pillaged local authority coffers.

In the most recent Draft Budget, the Scottish Government more than doubled the 2.2% cut it inherited from Westminster (increasing it to 5.7%) before passing it on to local authorities. In addition to this, the under-funded Council Tax freeze looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Mr Salmond is fond of railing against the financial constraints placed upon him by Westminster.

Yet he has no qualms about imposing even sterner financial restrictions on local authorities.

This strikes me as somewhat hypocritical, and leads me to suspect that Mr Salmond’s obsession with the Independence Referendum is less about local democracy and accountability than it is about amassing power.

Despite the disdain with which the SNP Government has treated them, local authorities are crucial to Scotland’s economic wellbeing.

They are major public sector employers (a sector on which Scotland is hugely reliant); they support local communities; they fund investment in schools, hospitals and social services; they drive growth in local economies.

Local authority revenue comes primarily from three sources: the block grant received from the Scottish Government (reduced by 83%); the Council Tax (frozen); and fees levied for certain services (which offer restricted scope for raising funds).

With so little power to raise further funds, North Lanarkshire Council must find the £73m required within its existing budget.

Making cuts on this scale is a thankless task, and I have little doubt that when they begin to bite, the Council will be criticised.

No one likes the bearer of bad news.

But this is just what Alex Salmond and his SNP Government want: to create the impression that it is Westminster’s fault, the council’s fault – anyone’s fault but theirs.

However, responsible Government is about making tough decisions.

I welcome the council’s willingness to consult widely with local residents on matters that will have a real and tangible impact upon their lives.

Taking the views of local people into account, I believe the council will, wherever possible, strive to protect jobs and front line services, and to do the best it can for the people of North Lanarkshire.”