A new report has revealed that cuts to home to school transport after a change in policy left hundreds of pupils no longer qualifying in Midlothian has saved the council just under £1million.
A report to a meeting of Midlothian Council this week heard that the policy change had created an underspend of £999,000 in the budgeted cost for this year.
Despite the savings, however, the report, which covered the council’s financial position for the first quarter of the year revealed it already had a net overspend of nearly £4.8million across services.
And it revealed the annual Welfare Fund grant allocated to the local authority by Scottish Government had already been completely used up despite only being a few months into the financial year.
Councillors were asked to approve the release of earmarked covid recovery funding to part-fund the overspend in Scottish Welfare Fund payments and approve the use of £2.581 million of Service Concession money to enhance reserves for the year.
Council leader Kelly Parry said that while there were some positives in the financial report which also saw underspends in the cost of electricity as well as an increase in income for sport and leisure facilities of £796,000 above budget, “we do have to be honest about the significant pressures facing the council”.
She said: “We have strengthened financial scrutiny, introduced tighter controls on spending and undertaken detailed reviews of the areas facing most pressure.
“There is absolute clear focus across council in bringing expenditure back under control and delivering savings that have already been agreed and that is non negotiable.”
However she said the Scottish Welfare Fund for the year had already been used up.
She said: “It is only September but we have used up our allocation of Scottish Welfare Funding. That means as a council we have to decide whether to restrict the criteria under which people can claim from the fund or we have to make the provision to fund it ourselves.
“As painful as that is when our financial position is so challenging I think it is the right thing for council to do. I think we should try to keep helping people but I have written to the Scottish Government in the meantime asking not only that they provide sufficient funding this year but undertake a review of the welfare fund because our allocation has been static for quite a significant number of years.”
Labour group leader Councillor Derek Milligan said it was clear the council faced difficult choices and raised concerns about relying on moving money from one fund to ease pressure on other areas as a short term solution.
He said: “We really need measured and palatable options brought forward because this is not about cutting funds, it is about moving money from one service to another.
“We as councillors need to make decisions about areas where we spend money and whether we bring forward options to cut costs or simply say we are not going to deliver this service any more.”
And Councillor David Virgo said discussions had been held over the last couple of years about ways to generate income with some projects such as the alpine coaster which is bringing in additional funds coming to fruition.
But he said: “I know there are other income generating projects in the ether somewhere and I hope officers will take the opportunity to light a fire under these and as well as bringing forward palatable cuts bring forward ideas for generating income.”
Councillors agreed to use the funds proposed to support the ongoing pressure on services.
By Marie Sharp Local Democracy Reporter
