by Communications TEAM | Feb 27, 2025 | announcement, announcementspage, Current Issues, News, webpage
Stirling Council have issued this press release on the approval of the council’s 2025-26 budget today.
Links to the budget papers and the recording of the meeting are included in the story.
Stirling Council approves 2025-26 budget
Stirling Council has approved a budget for 2025-26 that addresses a significant budget shortfall, protects key services and delivers major investment towards achieving council priorities.
At a meeting of Council today (27 Feb), councillors agreed the revenue and capital budget for the next financial year, informed by the feedback from the council’s Big Conversation with residents and communities.
The budget gap will be bridged by an 8.8% increase in council tax and a range of savings totalling £7.67 million – policy (£125,000), efficiencies (£5.9 million) and non-recurring (£1.6 million).
This additional revenue will also support the council’s revenue budget which funds the running of day-to-day frontline services such as schools and nurseries, libraries, community centres, waste collections, maintaining the road network, and social work and social care services to protect and support vulnerable people.
A £471,000 investment fund will be created from a portion of the non-recurring savings to support the delivery of the council priorities – decisions on how this will be spent will be taken by the finance, economy and corporate support committee.
Among the savings proposals rejected were the removal of school music tuition and school counselling; the removal of kerbside glass collections and garden waste concessions; a 25% reduction in library services; and a 25% reduction to Stirling’s Citizen’s Advice Bureau.
More than 4,300 people of all ages had their say on the detailed savings proposals and other areas of the budget such as changes to council tax in two surveys in this year’s Big Conversation.
Over £81 million has been allocated for next year’s capital budget – the funding of long-term projects such as new roads, schools and buildings.
A total of £5 million of this will be spent on road infrastructure improvements, with substantial investments in major projects across a wide range of service areas including new schools in Callander and South Stirling Gateway, the flood alleviation scheme in Bridge of Allan and new digital technology for schools.
Specific projects in the programme include the restoration of the Christie Clock over the next two financial years, £800,000 for two new pieces of road machinery and borrowing of £2.17 million to complete the redevelopment of The Peak at Stirling Sports Village.
Stirling Council Leader, Cllr Gerry McGarvey said: “I would like thank everyone who took part in the Big Conversation surveys and for providing such constructive and considered feedback. Be in no doubt – your views have shaped the decisions we have made today.
“Increasing council tax and making further savings, principally efficiencies, has enabled us to set a balanced budget that protects vital frontline services and gives us scope to invest in projects that will drive economic growth and secure a better future for all the people of Stirling.
“This commitment to deliver lasting benefits for our communities is also evident in our wide-ranging capital programme with significant investments in new infrastructure, facilities and equipment that will also support the transformation of our services.
“I would like to express my gratitude to everyone involved in setting this year’s budget and to acknowledge our hard-working and dedicated staff who deliver these services we rely on day-in, day-out, even during extreme weather events such as the recent Storm Eowyn.”
Like many Scottish local authorities, the council faces an unprecedented financial challenge with the budget report listing the main pressures. These include the use of one-off reserves in previous years, pay inflation, rising costs, increasing demand for services and grant allocations.
Almost 79% of the council’s budget comes from a Scottish Government grant and share of the Government’s non-domestic rates or business rates, with the rest raised from council tax.
The report on the council’s budget says that once ring-fenced grants and new funding which come with spending commitments were removed, the council’s core grant allocation from the Scottish Government for 2025-26 only increased by £4.2 million (1.8%) from last year.
The council’s recently approved medium term financial strategy has forecast that its cumulative budget gap will rise to £50.7 million by 2029-30.
Cllr McGarvey continued: “The serious financial pressures on the council and local government as a whole will result in more tough choices in the years ahead. To meet these challenges, we must continue our meaningful conversation with our residents, communities and staff on how we redesign our services and do things better and more efficiently.
“The budget also shows we have lots to look forward to over the coming 12 months with work progressing on transformative projects such as Forthside while the exciting finale celebrations of Stirling’s 900th birthday will take place at the end of March.
“Innovation, creativity and resilience have been associated with Stirling’s communities over the past 900 years and these same strengths will ensure we can overcome challenges and embrace the future with confidence and optimism.”
The budget reports, including the revenue budget and proposed capital programme, as well as the political motions, can be downloaded here.
You can watch a recording of the budget-setting meeting and to find links to the agenda papers on the council’s online broadcasting platform.
More information
For more information, please visit stirling.gov.uk/bigconversation.
by Communications TEAM | Feb 20, 2025 | announcement, announcementspage, News, webpage
Stirling Council is developing an updated set of equality outcomes for 2025-29. An equality outcome should further one or more of the following needs:
- eliminate discrimination
- advance equality of opportunity
- foster good relations.
These needs form the general equality duty for public authorities.
In other words, equality outcomes are intended to achieve improvements in people’s life chances.
We want to involve a range of people in developing the equality outcomes for 2025-29 – particularly those who share a relevant protected characteristic and their representatives.
There are nine protected characteristics:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender Reassignment
- Marriage and Civil Partnership
- Pregnancy and Maternity
- Race
- Religion or Belief
- Sex
- Sexual Orientation
This survey enables you to contribute to the development of the 2025-29 equality outcomes.
We will take your responses, experiences and stories – and collate them with others’ responses to understand common themes. We will then turn these themes into Equality Outcomes for Stirling, and aim to improve people’s life chances over the next four years.
This survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete, and is open until 10th March 2025 at this website: Equalities Survey
by Communications TEAM | Feb 19, 2025 | announcement, announcementspage, webpage
Our January 2025 meeting minutes were approved at our last meeting and are now available to read in full by clicking here
At the meeting we discussed
Police Report – Covering the period 19th November 2024 to 21st January 2025: available here
Updates from Community Organisations -A monthly agenda slot for updates from other community groups. Discover Bridge of Allan have published their Community Action Plan (CAP) – available on their website ; their AGM is on Feb 3rd; two board members are stepping down, with one new full member and an associate member joining the board, and they are adjusting their articles for charitable status. Friends of Bridge of Allan erected a large Christmas tree in the Provost’s Park ahead of the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, with wreath’s hung and sponsor plaques attached to street lights, and there were all taken down in the New Year. Ongoing work at the Memorial Park has been of clearing leaves and general tidy up; with the forthcoming closure of UCP they may lose use of a 40′ storage container for their equipment, and they made a plea if anyone knew of a suitable container and site The Dr Welsh Trust have funded replacement of the ‘Mid Wood’ signs with ‘Lower Westerton Wood’ signs, and these have now been erected. Councillor Tollemache reported for the Allotment Association on a delay with SC in renewing the Allotment’s lease.
Residents voice – Topics raised included dog mess, particularly Allan Vale road; Faulty Street Lights (attention was drawn to Stirling Councils
REPORT IT online reporting service for faults and complaints); Forthcoming Scottish Power tree works at the junction of Alexander Drive and Well Rd.
Planned Improvement Works – A forthcoming public meeting about the proposed Knockhill Bridge works was announced; It was hoped a Stirling Council officer might attend the February meeting to discuss Henderson Street traffic calming.
Council Budget Consultation – The Chair opened a discussion on the Stirling Council Budget Consultation with a plea that residents respond. She suggested the CC write to the Council to feed in a community view.
Our Bridge of Allan Planning – The working party are planning further engagement sessions. The deadline for the Local Place Plan has been extended until October.
Planning report – no new planning proposals of significance. It was noted that the planning consent for the development at Park of Kier had passed on 21st Dec 2024 with no extension requested by the developer.
Chair’s Report – The vice-chair (Anna Doeser) has resigned and we now have three community council vacancies, and welcome anyone interested to come along to a meeting or get in touch. A recruitment drive will begin soon. The chair reported writing to the owners of vacant properties and had replies from the owners of 103 and 105 Henderson Street, but not the Royal Hotel. It was felt that the sites should be tidied up. Following the vehicle accident which had knocked down the Paterson Memorial Clock the chair had received helpful reports from Stirling Council on progress to start repairs.
Secretary’s report – A round up of communications from our elected members, residents and newsletters.
Treasurer’s report – The invoice for the Christmas lights installation and removal has not yet been received . Some additional donations have been received. The only significant payment was for the rights to play recorded music at the Christmas Lights ceremony.
AOB – At a forthcoming meeting with Stirling Council about the MUGA it will be suggested that pickleball court markings are added.
Minutes for the latest February meeting will be available after their approval at the next meeting in March. However news on the progress of projects and local issues will also be shared via our website and social media accounts, so sign up to our mailing list or follow us to find out our news.
Minutes from all our past meetings can be found on our meetings page
by Communications TEAM | Feb 6, 2025 | announcement, announcementspage, webpage
Stirling Council Community Development Team have published the February 2025 Issue of the CDNews Bulletin.
This issue includes: Pension Age Disability Benefit, Let’s Grow Network, Stirling 900 Celebrations, Funding, Disclosure Scotland Changes, Dementia-Inclusive Singing Group and more. Please distribute to your networks. If you have any problem accessing the Bulletin or would like the material in a different format, please let us know. All past Bulletins are on our website.
If you would like an article included to promote your organisation’s activities or projects, please get in touch. Please pass to your networks and we’re happy to add anyone to our distribution list. The link to the Stirling Council page with the bulletin is https://www.stirling.gov.uk/community-life-and-leisure/community-development-news-bulletins/community-development-news-bulletin-february-2025/
by Communications TEAM | Feb 6, 2025 | announcement, announcementspage, webpage
R100 Poster - FinalThe Scottish Goverment’s £600+ million Reaching 100% (R100) programme is extending access to faster broadband to sub-30 Megabits per second homes and businesses who are unlikely to receive upgrades through commercial plans. You can find out more about R100 at: gov.scot/digitalconnectivity. To understand whether and how households and organisations have benefited from R100, the Scottish Government is undertaking an evaluation of the programme. As part of this, they have commissioned a survey of households and organisations who:
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- Are scheduled to receive broadband access via R100 but have not yet been connected
- Have been provided with broadband access via R100 and have taken up the connection
- Have been provided with broadband access via R100 but have not taken up the connection
The surveys are available online and can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/R100Evaluation
The surveys are only open to properties covered by the R100 programme. If a property is covered by the programme, the associated address will come up as an option when the property postcode is entered by the survey respondent.
The deadline for all survey responses is currently 3 March 2025.
by Communications TEAM | Jan 31, 2025 | announcement, announcementspage, News, webpage
The Chair of the Bridge of Allan Community Council has sent the following letter to Stirling Council:
OFFICIAL
Date: 31 January 2025
Dear Stirling Council,
2025/26 Stirling Council Budget: consultation and engagement process
In addition to our individual residents’ responses to the current budget engagement exercise, Bridge of Allan Community Council is writing on behalf of our community to express our concerns regarding both the process and the options being presented.
We appreciate that generating savings options for consideration is a challenge, however we feel that the information provided has been insufficient to allow residents to fully consider options and provide informed feedback to support Elected Members to decide on the budget for 2025/26.
On your engagement platform you state that £2.6m of savings are being consulted on with residents, and that a range of other savings, totalling more than £8m, have been identified which will not have a direct impact on the services resident’s use. No detail is provided on the £8m plus of savings identified, but we are struggling to understand how any savings made by Council will not have a direct impact on the services provided to residents. Whether the savings are being generated from back-office functions, from restructures or from another route they will ultimately impact on the quality and efficiency of the services provided by Stirling Council to its residents. We ask you to share publicly all information on the detail of these savings and an assessment of the impact, both positive and negative from these.
The savings presented for engagement are not supported with information on the potential impact should the saving be made, with detail instead describing the service as it is. There is no detail of the impact assessments you have undertaken in relation to equalities, children’s rights, environment, or the Fairer Scotland Duty. Without this level of detail, the engagement exercise you have undertaken feels tokenistic. Unless you are willing to support residents to give an informed view it is hard to see what value you place on this exercise. While we feel that asking respondents general questions about possible disproportionate impact of savings on people with one or more protected characteristic is positive it is not enough. It does not give any opportunity to consider how factors such as poverty may exacerbate impact on some households, or how the cumulative impact of different savings may have a disproportionate impact on specific individuals, households or families.
Many of the options presented seem to relate to services aimed at supporting those most in need, such as services specifically aimed at supporting children and young people to engage in education, community and culture; supporting families; providing access to libraries and community facilities; homelessness and housing support; business development; and volunteering support. These are often the areas targeted on an annual basis for savings, which provides uncertainty for both those who use the services and the staff who provide them. It also suggests they are valued less than services not being presented for consideration.
While we recognise that savings must be made, and that the budget requires to be balanced, we do not feel that the options presented represent areas of true efficiency within the organisation. Many of the options proposed will have a significant detrimental impact on members of our community who require most support and will have a cumulative long-term impact on outcomes for the communities who make up the Stirling Council area.
As a representative body for our area with a statutory basis, we have a role in supporting Council to engage with residents. We have shared information on the engagement exercise with residents and urged them to have their say. However the lack of detail on the options themselves, and the likely impact on residents is an area of significant concern for the Community Council and we would welcome a discussion on how this approach can be improved.
Regards
Amanda Coulthard
Chair, Bridge of Allan Community Council
Bridge of Allan Community Council
OFFICIAL
