Glasgow City Council's first-ever two-year budget reveals the stark reality again confronting users of vital services and the dilemmas local authorities face in meeting priorities and financial targets.
However, the council insists massive cuts and savings it has made in recent years, totalling around £130m, has given it some protection from the worst excesses of the financial squeeze, with the picture expected to be comparatively bleaker elsewhere.
All of Scotland's 32 councils are expected to unveil the extent of their cuts in the coming weeks, with many postponing difficult decisions last year due to the imminent local elections. North Lanarkshire will decide on £74m of cuts and savings in the coming weeks.
As well as its cuts and money-making schemes, Glasgow has also unveiled plans to spend £80m over the next two years on new and upgraded primary schools, £16m on roads repairs and two new care homes. It has already agreed on almost £20m of savings for the next two years, with the council expected to agree a further £50m next month.
Most departments have had to come up with 5% cuts and, although social work and education have only had to deliver savings of 2.5%, the size of their budgets means they will make up the lion's share of the £50m.
The plans include merger and moving some of the 27 specialist schools for children with learning difficulties and reducing the number of additional support for learning teachers to save £2.5m.
A controversial decision to plough ahead with replacing teachers in nursery classes with child development officers, having one head across several nurseries and changing school timetables, will save a further £5m. School maintenance will be scaled back to save a further £1.5m, after-hours clubs reduced for £100,000 and increasing the cost of a school let for another £800,000.
School dinners will increase in price by one-third between now and August 2014 to £1.50 and nursery fees hiked by 10%.
The budget for frontline social care services bought from charities and other outside bodies will be cut by £2m, a move which could see redundancies in the voluntary sector; the handyman service to those receiving home care cut; and those who often are referred to homes encouraged to take greater care of themselves for £4.6m.
The "personalisation of care" programme, previously rolled out for those with learning difficulties, would be extended to the elderly, and meals-on-wheels service for pensioners reduced from three courses to two.
The cost of lighting in the stairwell of tenements will increase by around £5 to an average of £29 plus VAT and attempts made to bring in £1.3m by generating income from the council's inhouse flower company, bereavement services and its transport fleet.
Car parking charges in outlying areas will go up from 30p for the first hour to 80p, controlled parking zones extended to eight new areas in the west and east end and periphery of the city centre and on-street charges in the city centre to 60p for 12 minutes and £3 for an hour.
The cost of entry fees to civic leisure centres would increase by 5% by mid-2014.
The council said that while there had been a small overall increase in the funding available to councils, "Glasgow will have to make substantial savings because ministers have slashed the city's share of the national pot".
City treasurer Paul Rooney said: "Our budgets are under intense pressure but we can't afford to think small. This is a time to focus on our priorities and invest in our people, in education, in communities and in infrastructure."
l Primary one and two children in Midlothian will have free fruit withdrawn in a council bid to save up to £160,000 annually.
