Dundee City Council’s Liberal Democrat councillors have released
their full budget proposals ahead of Thursday’s
council budget meeting and have proposed re-hiring every single street cleaning
post in Dundee axed by the SNP since 2015.
That’s some 39 posts, the SNP having cut the number of full time
equivalent street cleaning jobs from 115 in 2015 to just 76 today.Group Leader and West End
Councillor Fraser Macpherson said, “We continue to get many complaints from
constituents about street cleaning in the city which is simply not as good as
it used to be. The street sweeping staff left do a really good job
but there’s just not enough of them now.
It has been a picture of decline in the staffing resource year after
year under the SNP.
“Not only has the SNP cut 39
posts, there’s an additional 16 vacancies that have not been filled. So with just 60 street cleaners in post at
the moment, staffing levels currently in post are little more than half the
staff that were in place in 2015.
“Environment management
generally has lost significant staffing since 2015 and in our view has borne a
disproportionate share of the cuts. For
example, leaving aside cleaning the streetscape, the council’s Director of
Neighbourhood Services has confirmed to us that grounds maintenance staff who
maintain Dundee’s parks and open spaces has declined by 27 full time equivalent
posts since 2015.
“We want a
cleaner city – not litter lying, overflowing Eurobins, litter bins and dog bins
and to achieve this we need to help existing staff with the load they already
have by adding more street cleaning staff so we have found the funding
necessary to reinstate every single street cleaning post lost over the past 8
years. We’ll also create new posts in
forestry and animal control and add to the community safety warden and
countryside ranger staff resource.”
To pay for
this, the Liberal Democrats have identified a large range of small savings
right across the council in areas like equipment and furniture, car
allowances, travel and subsistence and also hospitality. This
would include scrapping the second civic vehicle and removing alcohol
purchases. It would also mean greater recharges for providing
services to third parties. The Liberal
Democrats also aim to propose a lower council tax increase than the SNP’s
proposed 4.75% increase.
Broughty Ferry councillor Craig Duncan added, “We are also
proposing an additional £2 million next year for roads resurfacing, £1 million
on pavements resurfacing to properly tackle the state of
many footpaths and road surfaces that we get so many complaints about.
“We are also proposing to save local supported bus
services including the 206 service in my own Broughty Ferry area that are
proposed for the axe by the SNP. We want
to save this service as well as others in the West End/Lochee,
Kirkton/Lawside/The Glens and Mill O’Mains/Mid Craigie and cuts to Service
10.
“We are also proposing to save the sheltered
shoppers’ bus and the ‘Out & About’ bus service that the SNP intends to
end. We feel this will be detrimental
to the elderly folk who rely on these services and would be an unkind and
inappropriate thing to remove these vital services for older people.”
West End councillor Michael Crichton added, “We are also proposing
improvements to the City Centre and District Shopping areas with a £1 million
for shopfront upgrades
and other exterior improvements such as improved lighting, painting, stonework
repairs and repositioning façade signage in the City Centre targeted on Murraygate
and Reform Street to complement the existing scheme recently agreed for Union
Street.
“A further £1 million will
be shared across the five district shopping areas – Stobswell, Hilltown,
Broughty Ferry, Perth Road and Lochee – to undertake further environmental
improvements there.
“We also want to double the
frequency of bus shelter cleaning back to monthly as it used to be before the
SNP halved it last year. We are
determined to see real environmental improvements in our shopping areas,
particularly in the city centre.
“We’ll also reduce parking
charges in areas like Hilltown and Broughty Ferry and abolish the West End car
parking charges altogether.”
Strathmartine councillor Daniel Coleman said, “The Liberal
Democrat Group will try stop the SNP proposal to
hike the brown bin charge yet again – to £45 from 2024 – and would seek to cut
it to £35 to support the recycling effort in Dundee.
“We also aim to oppose
the SNP’s increase in the bulky uplifts charge and would aim to cut the SNP
proposed charge by £9 per collection.
“We are also strongly
against the SNP’s proposal to cut 10% off local community regeneration
funding. Not only will we oppose this
SNP cut but our budget alternative aims to give each local area an extra £10
000 each specifically for localised cost of living support.
“There are areas where
we will support parts of the SNP budget – for example, their areas of
additional expenditure like supporting Dundee’s food network.
“We
would also continue to provide support to Sistema’s Big Noise Douglas that the
SNP says it will no longer support.”
Councillor Macpherson
concluded :
“Liberal Democrat budget
proposals also allow for growth in key areas like supporting local communities,
roads and pavements improvements, shopping area improvements and keeping our
streets cleaner.
We have listened carefully
to the issues our constituents are raising and feel our proposals are fair and
deliverable.”
