Council tax across East Ayrshire is set to increase by 5 per cent.

The decision was made as part of East Ayrshire Council’s budget setting on Thursday, with councillors tasked with agreeing savings totalling £8m in 2023/24.

Councillors were locked in negotiations for two and a half hours after the SNP administration and the opposition Labour group proposed their own wish-list. The Conservative group had indicated their support for the Labour budget.

Labour had indicated they would agree on the 20 recommendations, including a council tax rise of five percent, that had been considered by the Cabinet on Wednesday.

These included £2.82m in council service savings and £3.73m savings to be made by the Health and Social Care Partnership.

Plans to limit the council tax increase to three percent were increased to five percent after the Scottish Government warned of £4.4m in penalties had the council reduced teacher numbers.

As part of those recommendations, £750,000 was kept aside to allow members to make their own suggestions.

After long talks between the leaders of the groups, eleven proposals were agreed by the council.

These include:

  • Half price school meals for P6 to S6 (£500k)
  • Retention of the Tanyard toilets in Cumnock (£50k)
  • Creation of Anti Social Behaviour Team for two years (£162k)
  • Civic Pride ‘deep clean’ of towns and villages (£254k)
  • Roads and pavement repairs (£400k reallocation from existing budget)
  • Mental health and wellbeing activities (£120k)
  • Acceleration of playpark repairs
  • Additional playpark funding
  • Full review of brown bin policy (£20k)
  • Tenants support fund (£500k).

At the start of the meeting SNP council leader Douglas Reid laid out just how testing the budget process had been.

And he had some strong words for the Scottish Government, whose late intervention prevented EAC from cutting teacher numbers in line with schools’ falling pupil numbers.

He said: “I have to say that this has been one of the most difficult financial settlements I have ever faced – post covid, with spiralling energy costs pushing rising wage demands."

Cllr Reid also described the damage caused through ‘getting Brexit done’, including poverty and the less visible impact on mental health and wellbeing.

However, he said that the pandemic had show that ‘local government was best placed to deal with these issues’ along with civic pride, wellbeing and support to the local economy.

He also criticised the Scottish Government about the last minute restrictions caused by a change of rules around teacher numbers.

“We have worked collectively to reach a settlement, but it falls short of what we need.

“Asking us to maintain teacher numbers doesn’t make sense when pupil numbers are decreasing,” he said.

“Let us manage the process. Don’t tie our hands.”

However, he said that the financial situation stemmed from ‘the heart of Westminster through the UK government’s response’.

The Council Leader made a number of additional proposals.

These included creating a Anti-Social Behaviour Team which would be set up for four years at the outset, a civic pride programme that would tidy up towns and villages across the area, a £500k tenants support fund, a £275k mental wellbeing scheme, and an expanded S1 period products scheme.

Cllr Reid also said the administration was willing to ‘spend some pennies’ to remove the closure of the Tanyard toilets in Cumnock from the budget.

Labour group leader Councillor Maureen McKay warned that the settlement provided by the Scottish Government had placed councils’ very existence at risk’.

She said that Labour would accept the 20 recommendations made by the Cabinet on Wednesday, other than the closure of the Cumnock toilets – one of a number of proposals that shared common ground with the administration.

Cllr McKay also proposed an anti-social behaviour pilot scheme, launching a civic pride programme to enhance towns and villages.

She also suggested additional sums to bring forward road repairs.

Cllr McKay said: “Due to constraints of the settlement, the truth is that we cannot do it all.”

As well as overlapping proposals, Labour also proposed a full review of the garden waste bin charge,

The Kilmarnock North member also proposed the additional investment in playparks around the authority, utilising Scottish Government funding and the council’s own reserves.

The Labour proposals also sought to cut school meal payments by 50 percent to provide support during the cost of living crisis.

The Scottish Government had intended to roll out free school meals to P6 and P7 pupils, but this has stalled.

Cllr McKay said: “This leaves many young people still having to purchase school meals.

Citing ‘nifty marketing’ for East Ayrshire’s school meals, she suggested making them half price for all pupils ineligible for free meals at a cost of £500k.

This would provide ‘ongoing savings to family budgets’, during the crisis, she said.

Conservative Councillor Neill Watts told the meeting that his group was against the five percent rise in council tax, describing it as ‘far too much’.

While both the SNP and Labour proposed to retain the public toilets in Cumnock, Cllr Watts insisted it had been as result of ‘pressure from the Conservative Group on this issue’.

The Conservative group did not put their own proposals on the table, opting to support the Labour budget plan.