Council Welcomes Additional Finance from Local Government Settlement

Councillor Michael Foxley, Vice-Convener of The Highland Council and Chairman of the Council's Budget Working Group, very much welcomed the £6.5 million increase in grant support the Council will receive from the Scottish Executive in the new financial year 2007-8.

Councillor Foxley said the extra grant support would ease the impact of savings the Council faced having to make to meet its spending targets in the new financial year and contain the increase in the Council Tax.

He said: "We will be adopting a no frills approach to this extra spending allocation.  We were facing some pretty tough decisions to keep our budget in line, with savings of £14 million identified.

"This money will allow us to meet pressures on important services such as free personal care, helping manage delayed discharge from hospital, education services, such as school transport and special educational needs and reinstate cuts in maintenance regimes within TEC Services."

The Council is currently seeking assistance from the Executive to meet the £5.5 million bill its faces following the floods in Ross, Sutherland and Caithness between 24-26 October and will be eager to bid for monies from the £61 million one-off capital fund being made available in 2007-8.