Argyll and Bute Council’s depute leader has likened the late offer of more funding to the local authority as being “more akin to Dibley Parish Council”.
Gary Mulvaney made the comparison with the fictional body depicted in the BBC comedy The Vicar Of Dibley as the authority’s members voted in favour of a 10 per cent council tax increase for the 2024-25 financial year.
The Scottish Government made an additional £62.7 million available to Scottish local authorities the day before the council met to consider its budget on February 22.
But Councillor Mulvaney, the authority’s policy lead for finance and commercial services, said the conditions attached to that extra funding were not yet known.
As a result, members of the council’s ruling administration did not factor it into their budget proposals, which were backed by 18 votes to 16.
First Minister Humza Yousaf had pledged at the SNP conference in October that council tax would be frozen across the country in the coming year.
Councillor Mulvaney, a Conservative councillor for the Helensburgh Central ward, told the meeting: “We have sought to develop a budget in very trying circumstances, as we have to contend with yet another year of cash cuts.
“The Scottish Government response has been to plug its ears and to ignore COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) and council pleas, and run down the clock.
“Basically, it is carrying on regardless until the 11th hour, when £62 million has been found as if by magic.
“But we do not yet know what conditions are attached, so essentially, we cannot take it into account while setting the budget.
“It is more akin to Dibley Parish Council than it is to national partnership work.
“The Scottish Government, in its insistence on a council tax freeze, places councils in an impossible position. Our settlement is simply not enough and that has been the case for years.
“Increasingly, the Scottish Government has ring-fenced what it gives to councils for its own priorities and that is before we get to the challenges of population and economic growth.
“In fact, our relative share of funding has gone down, because the Scottish Government has reduced its protection of areas that are suffering depopulation, as ours has.”
Argyll and Bute’s constituency, MSP Jenni Minto, said: “I hear every day from constituents who are struggling to make ends meet due to the Tory-made cost of living crisis.
"The First Minister announced a Council Tax freeze to help everyone in Scotland with the extreme pressures they are facing and keep bills as low as possible. This was to be fully funded and inflation busting, an opportunity for Argyll and Bute Council to increase their budget whilst supporting our constituents.
"The Deputy First Minster then offered additional funding to further support this freeze and to learn that not only has this been rejected but that the Tory/Lib Dem/independent administration are raising Council Tax by a whopping 10 per cent is infuriating.
"Whilst the SNP Scottish Government is working hard to support households across Scotland through this challenging time, the same cannot be said for the current Argyll and Bute Council administration.”
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