THE bleak future facing councils and their workers across Scotland has been laid bare after one of the country's largest authorities announced plans to save £100 million over the next four years.

Fife Council, the third largest in Scotland, has become the first to make public its long-term projections of how ongoing cuts will hit services in the years ahead.

Most authorities have not made any budgetary plans beyond 2015/16, but Fife's proposals take it towards the end of the decade.

There have been recent warnings that years of swingeing cuts have left little politically palatable left to cut, while the reduction in public spending post-2015 will dwarf the current reductions.

Fife, a Labour-run council, said it now asking residents for their suggestions on cuts and savings, claiming the "move has been agreed by the leaders of all political groups as a way of involving communities in the budget, and making the process more transparent and open".

But the authority's SNP ­opposition said the proposals amount to the loss of 1300 posts over the next four years.

With a review of the schools estate in Fife ongoing and the authority's schools capacity running at 16,500 under, the SNP said there could also be 800 jobs going within education, including 300 teachers.

Among the proposals are the removal of music tuition from primary schools and secondary schools unless the pupil is studying for SQA exams, reducing cleaning in schools, cutting pupil support, clustering head teachers and removing all foreign language specialists from primary schools.

There are proposals to outsource social care, review voluntary organisation funding, cut parks and countryside staff, and reduce funding for libraries, the arts, sports and leisure

The SNP group's deputy leader, Dunfermline councillor Brian Goodall, said: "We are extremely concerned about the depth, nature and impact of many of these proposed cuts, and we will work to prevent a large number of these suggestions being implemented.

"We'll be calling on the Labour administration to rule out the proposals that will have the worst impact on frontline services and jobs in Fife."

Council leader Alex Rowley set out the context of the need for the savings, claiming Fife's population of over-65s was due to rise by 30% by 2022 while the number of children being looked after by the authority had increased by 38% since 2006. The budget will be set next February.

Mr Rowley said: "We are facing the biggest financial and social challenges in our history. Real changes are necessary and tough decisions are needed. Rest assured we will consider all the suggestions made before we make final decisions in February"