Week 42

The budget and capital programme, council tax, the academy, Ardersier Port, and a bank holiday

The council budget

This Thursday we will be agreeing the Highland Council’s budget for 2023/24. You can can read the details online here.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you’ll know that it was inevitable that there would be cuts as, due to various cost pressures from pay rises and general inflation alongside a “flat cash” settlement from the Scottish Government (so an effective cut of about 10% allowing for inflation), we would otherwise be in the order of £50,000,000 over budget for this year.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few weeks attending meetings discussing this and we’ve had to make some hard decisions and I already know from my mailbox, even before this is agreed, that some people aren’t happy.

We’re proposing an increase of 4% in Council Tax which is going to hurt but at a time when inflation is over 10% it could be a lot worse and it also puts us at the bottom of the table compared to increases already announced by other Scottish councils as this table shows.

Cllr Raymond Bremner, the leader of the council, has talked about this in more detail on his facebook page here.

There is some good news however. The council is a big employer in the Highlands (possibly the biggest?) and it is not intending to make anyone redundant, the roads budget is being protected and in fact there’s plans to do more on roads, and there’s also a plan to improve fostering which should both save money and also give better outcomes for children.

Nairn Academy and the Capital Programme

The other aspect of council finances is the capital programme, where we decide what new projects to undertake. Normally we would have decided this by now as the aim is to do that before the budget, but the Scottish Government has thus far failed to tell us which school projects will get LEIP funding in the next round.

This is impacting on decisions to give the final go ahead with both Nairn Academy and Broadford Primary, which were part of a previous round of LEIP bids, but until the council knows how successful it’s been in the next round it’s been impossible to make a firm decision to go ahead on these two schools.

Unsurprisingly I, and your other ward councillors, are keeping a very close eye on this.

Ardersier Port Update Meeting

Ardersier Port is technically outside the ward, other than the access road, but any developments there will inevitably have an impact on Nairnshire, just as its original use as McDermott Yard did when it was used to construct oil rigs. For example I understand that they would like to build an incinerator on the site, which of course lies upwind of Nairn.

Ardersier & Petty Community Council have organised a meeting this Wednesday, 1st March at Ardersier Village Hall starting at 7:30pm where representatives from Ardersier Port will be there to answer your questions on their plans.

King’s Coronation bank holiday

An additional public holiday on Monday, 8th May was approved at the last meeting of the Corporate Resources Committee. The additional public holiday is in honour of the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles and is in line with UK Government arrangements. There will be no change to the council’s existing public holidays.

Offices and schools will be closed and any staff required to work that day will be recompensed in accordance with existing policy with regard to enhanced public holiday payments. This will include staff who will require to provide emergency cover and other essential services.