Stirling Council Labour Group Leader calls on local MSPs to show support for local services in next week’s budget.

Stirling Council Labour Group Leader, Councillor Danny Gibson, has today written to all local MSPs urging them not to support any minority Scottish Government budget that inflicts further financial pain and austerity on Scotland’s Local Authorities.

The letter, sent to constituency MSPs Bruce Crawford and Keith Brown, along with all Mid-Scotland and Fife list MSPs urges them to:

“show your support for our remarkable council staff and our treasured local services by pledging not to support a budget that inflicts more austerity, more cuts and more unnecessary pain on Local Authorities.”

The letter comes just days before SNP Finance Secretary Derek Mackay is due to deliver his budget. Last week the Accounts Commission said that Local Authority budgets have fallen across Scotland by 7.6% in real terms since 2011.

Councillor Gibson said,

“Whatever way the minority Scottish Government choose to dress it up, Scotland’s Local Authorities have less money to spend on essential services than they did 6 years ago. We are heading towards a cliff for local services and rather than throw us a lifeline, the minority Scottish Government is pushing us closer to the edge. It must stop and it must stop now. We need the support of all of our local MSPs to stop more council cuts.”

The full text of Councillor Gibson’s letter can be read below:

Dear

Funding for Local Authorities in 2018/19

Next week the minority Scottish Government will publish its budget for the coming year. This will include information on the grant being given to Local Authorities, including here in Stirling.

I am writing today to ask you to pledge to NOT support any Scottish Government budget that imposes more austerity and financial pain on Local Authorities.

Last week the Accounts Commission confirmed that Local Authority budgets fell in real terms in 2017/18 compared to 2016/17 and have fallen across Scotland by 7.6% in real terms since 2011. This has resulted in 30,000 local government job losses over this period and Unison Scotland state that nine out of ten austerity job losses in Scotland have been in Councils”.

Whatever way the Scottish Government choose to dress it up, Scotland’s Local Authorities have less money to spend on essential services than they did 6 years ago.

If the Scottish Government do not act now to reverse the hugely damaging approach they are taking to Local Government finances, the question we must ask is not if council services will break, but when will they break?

We are heading towards a cliff for local services and rather than throw us a lifeline, the Scottish Government is pushing us closer to the edge. It must stop and it must stop now. We need the support of all of our local MSPs to stop more council cuts.”

The Scottish Parliament has never had so many economic levers to use to support our vital local services. We need a wholescale review of council tax, rather than the tinkering around the edges we saw last year. We need to use the tax raising powers of the Scottish Parliament to protect, not cut, the local services our citizens rely on every day.

You can show your support for our remarkable staff and our treasured local services by pledging not to support a budget that inflicts more austerity, more cuts and more unnecessary pain on Local Authorities.

I urge you to tell Finance Minister Derek MacKay this before next week’s budget.

On budget day, you have a voice inside the chamber at Holyrood and, more importantly, a vote.

Kind regards

Councillor Danny Gibson

Labour Group Leader on Stirling Council

ENDS

Statement by the Stirling Constituency Labour Party on the lifting of suspension and reinstatement of Tory Party Whip to Stirling Councillors Robert Davies and Alistair Majury:

“Stirling deserves better than offensive Tory councillors and feckless Tory discipline. Given the deeply offensive views expressed by Councillors Majury and Davis, ‘Keep your heads down lads and it will all blow over in a couple of months’ is a response you’d expect in a 1970s TV cop show, not a political party in 2017. With this incident, the Tory party has shown bad judgement in choosing councillors and poor leadership in denouncing sectarianism and racism in Scotland today.

Councillors Davies and Majury need to face up to their actions and offer their resignations to their constituents.”

Thursday 4 May is Stirling Council Election Day

Read our Manifesto For Stirling and you’ll see Labour have a vision for Stirling’s future and a track record of success.

Vote Labour to protect the local services – from schools, care services, paths, parks, roads and more – that touch our daily lives.

We need local Labour champions who will drive Stirling forward.

Stirling deserves better than SNP candidates who won’t even stand up to their own party and the damage the SNP Government are doing to local services. Stirling Council’s budget has been CUT by £2.6 million this year by Nicola Sturgeon.

Stirling deserves better than Tory candidates who are following an increasingly right wing austerity agenda. Send a message to the Tories that Scotland is shamed by the Rape Clause they’ve introduced.

Vote Labour and you’re voting for a plan to build hundreds more social homes across Stirling’s communities over the next four years.

Vote Labour for a municipal energy company to help tackle fuel poverty and ensure communities retain profits.

Vote Labour to help re-regulate busses to ensure they run to community not commercial priorities.

Vote for local Labour champions on May 4^th.

Stirling Labour sets out vision for Stirling with 2017 Manifesto

Bold new commitments to local bus and energy companies feature in Labour’s manifesto for Stirling. The party’s key priorities were unveiled this week and include a promise to double to 1200 the number of hours of free pre-school childcare available to families, and realise the potential of £600 million in City Region Deal investment. The document will help shape Stirling over the next five years if Labour return to power on May 4^th.

Your Labour candidates who will deliver on manifesto commitments

Violet Weir, one of two Labour candidates standing in the Bannockburn ward, told an audience of local party members and guests that the Labour-led Administration had much to be proud about since coming to power in 2012. Violet said,

“We have created over 400 council homes, built new schools at Cowie and St Ninians, and the £35 million Stirling Care Village is months away from opening. But we must go further and in the next five years we want to create more social rented homes that we have in the last five years. We will promote Stirling to employers around the world and we will realise the once in a generation potential of the £600 million City Region Deal that Labour Councillors are negotiating. We have a vision for Stirling and we will work tirelessly to deliver it in the face of continuing and unnecessary cuts to council budgets from the SNP Government at Holyrood.”

Chris Kane, one of two Labour candidates standing in Stirling East, spoke on the thinking behind the new approach to public transport and energy production. Chris said,

“It is unacceptable that fuel poverty exists and that Stirling’s citizens can’t rely on public transport to get them where they need to be when they need to be there. We want bus services run to community not commercial priorities. We want locally produced green energy with lower costs, fixed for longer periods. Stirling Council has the scale and the resources to kick start a local green energy revolution and sort out the buses and if Labour are in Administration in May, we’ll get to work and deliver for Stirling.”

The keynote speaker at the launch event was Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Alex Rowley MSP who said that Labour were the only party who offered a vision for Stirling’s future, backed up by a track record of success in the past.

To download a full copy of our manifesto, click here.

To read individual sections of our manifesto online, click on the links below:

Alex Rowley MSP with local members and candidates

Labour council candidates say further cuts to Local Authority budgets are a dangerous SNP road to go down

Labour Council Candidates in Forth & Endrick and Trossachs & Teith have today said that a cut to Stirling Council funding from the SNP next week is both a wrong and dangerous road to go down.

Speaking in advance of the Scottish Government laying out its spending plans for the next year, Labour’s candidate for Forth and Endrick, former MSP Dr Richard Simpson said,

“While I know Stirling’s Labour-led administration will do all it can this winter to keep our rural roads safe, the SNP in Edinburgh need to see the bigger picture. Budget cuts not only affect investment in road improvement but also have a real impact on communities trying to go about their daily business which in turn can harm the local economy. Less funding means councils are less able to respond to typical – let alone unusual – winter conditions in future. Although I suspect they’d like it run centrally from Edinburgh, the SNP can’t control the weather – but they can control how much money they give local government who have to keep vital services rolling no matter what the conditions are like. The SNP have to realise that if as a result of their political choices the local government settlement is cut again next week, it will have severe consequences for roads, transport and travel across Scotland.”

Labour’s candidate for Trossachs & Teith, Gartmore resident Gerry McGarvey, says,

“Years and years of cuts and more cuts from the SNP in Edinburgh are having a huge impact on our towns and villages. If the budget is further cut next week, no amount of hand wringing from the SNP will make up for the loss of jobs in the hospitality and other industries if tourists decide to avoid the risk of damage to their vehicles. Buses operators have already decide to cut their services as council subsidies, already stretched to the maximum, can no longer support what the operators need to make rural bus routes viable. We need our government to be supporting Stirling’s rural communities, not making life more difficult for us by slapping us in the face and reducing their financial support.”

After nine years of a council tax freeze, Stirling Council has had to cut over £30 million across all services, with an extra £7 million in this financial year. With around 60% of funding coming from the SNP in Edinburgh, a further cut next week will push services already stretched to breaking point even further.

Richard Simpson added,

“While the SNP will want to point the finger at the Tories in Westminster, it is important to note that while the Tories have cut Scotland’s grant by around 5%, the SNP have cut the grant to local authorities by around 11%. The SNP are the administrators of austerity in Scotland and it is our communities, our roads, our schools, our venerable residents in care and so many more people who suffer. This has to stop and I hope the SNP realise this ahead of their budget statement on Thursday.”

The SNP Government in Edinburgh will publish its draft budget for the coming year on Thursday 15 December.

Forth & Endrick

In Forth & Endrick, local members have chosen Dr Richard Simpson to be their candidate. Richard served for thirteen years as a Member of the Scottish Parliament; as a Justice Minister in the first parliament and over the last nine years a shadow Public Health Minister. Richard is a former GP and a current Honorary Professor at Stirling University in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport. He’s a former Chairman of Strathcarron Hospice and a current trustee on the Guardians of Scotland Trust.

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Richard says,

I’m delighted to have been selected to stand in the Forth & Endrick Ward and I know that my experience both as a GP and as an MSP will be invaluable in helping both patients and constituents. We need a focused approach to tackling health inequalities and fuel poverty and realise that our local communities have unique concerns over issues including broadband and public transport. I’m looking forward to being a strong voice for the many diverse and proud communities here in West Stirlingshire.