Year 3, Week 43
Welcome, Delnies, council budget ...
Welcome
This week has seen a big surge in new subscribers so welcome to you all and I’ll start with a brief introduction. This blog exists because one of the things that struck me even before I thought about standing was that our previous local councillors didn’t tell us what they were up to so I promised as part of my election campaign to keep residents of the ward informed as to what was going on at Highland Council. I’ve done that with posts here pretty much every week since I was elected. There’s more about me and this blog here and don’t forget there’s an online archive of all my past posts if you want to catch up.
Delnies
I now have a dedicated page about the development at Delnies with links to my most significant past posts about it so you might want to visit that. I should also remind new readers that I opposed this development when it came to planning.
This week has seen the digging up of the shared use path on the south side of the A96. That didn’t surprise me as improving that was part of the planning application but they also appear to be digging a trench to run yellow pipes. Those normally carry gas and I’m surprised about that as I was led to believe that new houses have to have electric, normally air pump, central heating so I’m asking officers about that.
Work is also going ahead with the laying of the sewage connection around the end of the Sandown land which again I’ve discussed before here.
Finally there’s the first meeting of the Delnies Community Liaison Group this Tuesday. If you have any issues that you’d like me to raise which you’ve not highlighted to me already then do get in touch.
Budget
Council meets this Thursday to agree our budget from 2025/26 and the headline figure is that we are proposing a 7% increase in council tax.
5% of that covers rising costs (things like inflationary pressures, pay rises, and also Labour’s increase in employers’ National Insurance) but also some new projects. The full papers are online here but are a bit dry so I’ve put online the slideshow presented to the press on Tuesday.
Here are some key points I’d like to highlight in what is a transformational budget:
We’ve not using reserves to balance the budget - this is very positive for the long term finances of the council.
We will create over 100 new jobs across the Highlands.
We are setting up a Poverty and Equality Commission to help get people out of poverty. Its first target will be to ensure people are claiming all the benefits to which they’re entitled, estimated at £70m.
We are investing a further £2.3m in Additional Support for Learning (ASL) which I know many parents who have written to me will welcome.
We are creating a £2m fund to increase the number of teachers.
We will increase local amenity services and grass cutting by £450k, something I know from your correspondence is much in demand.
To enable our Social Value Charter from Renewables, of which I’ve spoken here before, an £8 million energy investment fund is being created.
We’ve also allocated a £6m fund to expand our in-house bus services and £500k to support and enable community-based recycling scheme.
It’s also worth noting that we are proposing no increases in bereavement services, school meals, or school lets.
So that’s the 5%. The other 2% is ring fenced to cover the cost of the Highland Investment Plan, about which I've spoken here before but is essentially to finance increased borrowing to the tune of about £50m a year which we can use to fund capital projects like new schools and road improvements.
By the way, if the idea of borrowing worries you then you’re not alone: a Lib Dem councillor raised concerns in The Northern Times in January. You can read my reply here on Mastodon explaining how local government finance works (it’s not like a household) and why we have a sound financial plan.
In closing I should just mention that even if 7% seems high, and I know it will hurt if your finances are tight, then bear in mind that this is a low increase by comparison to other councils. Below is a bar chart of all the councils who have already agreed their increases (figures mainly from this BBC article).
As you can see, only one council has so far agreed a lower council tax than us (South Lanarkshire at 6%). Most are around 8% to 10%, including Moray just down the road at 10%, and the highest currently agreed is Clackmannanshire at 13%. It’s also possible that Orkney will be higher at 15% but that’s yet to be confirmed, and another five councils have also yet to decide.
Planning applications
The following new applications were logged since I last posted.
24/05184/FUL - Land 65M SW Of Easterton Croft, Easterton Bridge, Nairn - Installation of 6.2kW domestic solar array
25/00490/PNO - Garblies Farm, Auldearn, Nairn, IV12 5JZ - Erection of agricultural building
To find details search on the reference number on the planning portal where you can also find details on how to comment.