11 key points from East Ayrshire's budget as half-price school meals agreed

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Council tax across East Ayrshire will increase by 5 per cent after East Ayrshire Council set out its budget, agreeing cuts and savings of £8m for 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: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