No public services safe

Thursday, March 04, 2010

COSLA President Pat Watters and First Minister Alex Salmond have painted a gloomy picture for Scotland's 32 local authorities as they opened COSLA's annual conference.

Salmond frequently referred to economist John Maynard Keynes' comment "In the long run we are all dead" as he pledge the Scottish Government to continue to fight for better funding for Scotland.

And he said that the current situation, and any further cuts, would harm Scotland's recovery from the recession.

"This government will not sit idly by and accept cuts from Westminster," he said, "further cuts could damage public services and Scotland's economic recovery.

"The Scottish Government is demanding no re-opening of the 2010/11 spending plans."

Watters predicted a widening gap between funding and demand for services up to 2017/18: "We will see a reduction of between 10 and 15 per cent in resources, and an increase in demand for services of 2 to 5 per cent – that's a 20 per cent gap opening up.

"We provide the most essential public services throughout Scotland day and daily, through very challenging times – we are not part of the problem, we are part of the solution in delivering change."

Watters claimed that savings would have to be found across all services, including education, fire service and care, adding: "We really need to start discussing this with communities and how we intend to manage the situation."