East Renfrewshire approves council tax freeze

Cuts will see jobs lost among school crossing patrollers, cleaners and janitors

Council tax in East Renfrewshire will be frozen next year after councillors approved plans to plug a £12m budget deficit.

Scottish government funding of £3.2m will be provided to cover the freeze while the local authority makes cuts of around £3.1m.

An additional £5m will be made available by "reprofiling" PFI payments while council officials will be asked to cut spending by £800,000.

The council will use £700,000 from reserve funds to plug the gap.

'Real-terms cut'

The plans were presented by the council leader, Labour's Owen O'Donnell, at a meeting on Wednesday with backing from the Conservatives. An SNP amendment was defeated in a vote.

Under the plans, around 60 full-time equivalent jobs are expected to be lost although many are currently vacant.

Many of the cuts were agreed in December and include removing jobs among school crossing patrollers, janitors and cleaners.

The local authority will receive a settlement of £239m from the Scottish government which Mr O'Donnell said was "a real-terms cut".

Mr O'Donnell said: "The council tax freeze has removed our control over the single most important way in which we can raise income and protect services here in East Renfrewshire.

"All councils must be given back that flexibility so we can respond to what local people are telling us are their priorities."

He said a Scottish government announcement of additional funding could meant around £1.1m more was available to the council but "this won't be clear until after next month's UK budget".