Speaking during today’s East Lothian Council debate on Council finances, Cllr Michael Veitch (Conservative Group Leader) said:
“The most important line in this paper is the final bullet in paragraph 3.4 where we read that:
‘The Council remains on track with its current financial strategy of removing the dependency upon reserves and balancing income and expenditure by 2016-17’
“This prudent approach to managing East Lothian’s finances is precisely what these challenging times require of us, and the people of East Lothian would expect nothing less. It does of course mean some very difficult spending decisions have to be made, but we can take heart from the fact that for General services, the use of reserves was less than planned, and that the Partnerships & Services for Communities Directorate delivered a large adjusted under-spend.
“Major challenges of course remain which are largely out-side the control of this Council. It is clear that whatever the outcome on 18th September that the Scottish Government will be in receipt of substantial new financial powers, which I welcome. It is therefore my hope that future Scottish Governments, of whatever political hue, will follow Westminster’s initiative, and likewise seize the opportunity to devolve substantial new powers to local authorities.
“The status quo, where local authorities are little more than delivery agents for our pay-masters in the Scottish Government, seems to me to be untenable going forward, and I, for one, would like to see councils have far more responsibility for raising the money they spend. This would make us more accountable to the people we serve, give us far greater control over the services we deliver, and is, in my view at least, the best means of achieving the economic prosperity which we all want to see.”