Committee agrees to slash development budget
Malachy TallackThe proposed massive cuts to the development directorate were agreed by the special development committee on Thursday afternoon.
The cuts include a reduction of almost £3 million in the economic development budget for the next financial year, more than 50 per cent of the current year’s budget of £5.5 million.
Cuts will also come from planning (£385,000) and transport planning (£34,000). They will now go forward to the full council meeting on 20th February for ratification.
The community planning and development department will also have its budget reduced, by £51,000, which will be the first part of a 10 per cent cut in funding to the Shetland Museum and Archives, to be phased over three years.
During the meeting, committee chairman Alistair Cooper said: “I support what the staff have done, trying to get rid of the pain in the first year.”
It was up to the council to provide stability, he said, and the proposed budget reductions were the best means of achieving that.
“I will be recommending what we have here”, he concluded. The motion was carried without opposition.
Stewart Mack
As has been mentioned elsewhere, we now see the Development Department budget “slashed” more than in half, can any of the Councillors now confirm that staff numbers will follow suit and be halved? Surely even the SIC cannot condone the same level of staffing here.
It would be interesting to see the staff levels for the SIC in say 1978, the height of the Oil Boom, and compare it with current staff numbers, Surely this worthy tombe has access to the historical figures? Lets see what they were then and now and see if we, the general public, can spot a way to save the bus station and loo’s…….