North Ayrshire Council budget passed with backing from Tories
The SNP's deal with the Conservatives includes moving £750,000 from the energy fund to pay for improvements to the region's roads
Last updated 29th Feb 2024
Conservatives in North Ayrshire threw their support behind the Budget proposed by the SNP administration on Wednesday, putting political differences aside.
But they were given special concessions to help ensure the deal got over the line.
However, they fear continued “underfunding” from the Scottish Government could lead to more “excessive” cuts.
The Tories’ nine members form the main opposition in the Chambers so have a major say on key decisions.
Tories "could not suppoet the Labour proposals"
Conservative Group Leader, Tom Marshall, said: “We could not support the Labour proposals which would mean Council Tax being spent on energy generation, Community Wealth Building and other projects with which we did not agree and would have increased the deficit for the following year.
“Although we have political differences with the SNP it is important for the electorate for us to work together to agree a sensible budget moving forward.
“We therefore agreed to support the SNP administration budget on the basis that there would be a council tax freeze for the coming year.
“We felt it important that the council tax payer should see their money being spent in their communities and so our budget proposals included two of our asks.
An extra £750,000 to improve the region's roads
“To provide extra expenditure for the roads department in the sum of £750,000 to deal with the continual problems with pavement and road maintenance.
“Removal of the proposed charge for brown bin collection as we felt that this was an important free service for residents and contributes to increased recycling rates for the council.”
He added: “It is unfortunate that the SNP Scottish Government continues to underfund councils. It makes it difficult to achieve a balanced budget without resorting to excessive cuts which become more likely in future years.”