What was described as "a scary budget" on a "grim day for the Highlands", will see nearly £30m worth of savings by the Highland Council with hundreds of jobs going.
It meant that Highland Council could agree to continue the council tax freeze tax at £1,163 for band D and a revenue budget for 2016/17 of £555.
There were claims that this represented the death of local democracy, as the Scottish Government’s threat of crippling penalties if the council tax was increased, had hamstrung the council.
Loch Ness councillor Margaret Davidson, leader of the Independent administration, said that as a result the role of the council would change in Highland communities as the council was restructured to address the continuing need for cutbacks in the coming years.
“We have had Westminster austerity and it has been compounded by excessive Holyrood control, increasing spin and distortion of facts.”
Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors also attacked Deputy First Minister John Swinney’s stranglehold on local government finance, which meant the grim decisions the council had to make, were from “homegrown” cuts rather than the UK Tory government.
The savings being made are widespread from closing six public toilets in the centres of Inverness, Dingwall; Nairn, Fort William, Wick and Thurso; to increasing burial and cremation charges; and reducing meat in school meals, using vegetable protein and pulses instead.
But there are to be major reductions in the workforce
The council had run a voluntary redundancy programme which attracted 801 applications of which 341 have been accepted, equating to 275 full time equivalent (FTE) posts.
This will save almost £10m a year, but the upfront cost to the council in redundancy settlements is £12.458m.
Director of Finance Derek Yule said that the council’s reserves would stand at £10m, but that could reduce to well under £8m if the Scottish Government did not agree to certain other adjustments.
He warned that given the last bad winter had cost the authority between £4m and £5m “the reserves are at a dangerously low level.”
But the ruling administration accepted proposals from the SNP opposition which would help avoid £1.3m cuts in funding including for Women’s Aid, street cleaning, deprived areas and the Blas music festival.
The SNP proposals included saving £500,000 by changing the council's policy on sickness absence and a further £500,000 in schools energy incentives.
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