Hundreds of jobs to go as Glasgow City Council slashes spending

GLASGOW City Council is to cut 600 jobs in a radical cost-cutting exercise aimed at saving £30million.

Scotland’s biggest local authority is considering a cull which will see as many as 228 middle management posts go.

Council chiefs said no compulsory redundancies will be necessary next year.

But the drastic proposals also include closure of some city museums on certain days of the week and the introduction of charges for some pupils for school breakfast.

The council is also considering closing community halls, swimming pools and a library.

The cuts, aimed at saving £30.3 million, will take £3.1 million off the council’s education budget and £5.5 million off social services, as well as £1.7 million from the budget for Culture and Sport Glasgow, which runs the city’s museums, galleries and sports facilities.

Land and environment services, which looks after the city’s parks and roads, will have £1.6 million cut from its budget.

Cuts will also be made to the development and regeneration budget, corporate services, financial services, car parking and marketing for tourists and businesses.

Baillie Gordon Matheson, the city treasurer, said the budget is “tight” but will be “the best for years to come”.

He said the council had been squeezed by the 2010 settlement given to them by the Scottish Government, which funds 80 per cent of its budget.

While the increase was the lowest in the country at 1.5 per cent, Glasgow City Council still receives more money than any other local authority.

Mr Matheson said: “We’re living within our means while at the same time protecting key services.

“The Scottish Executive has given us the lowest increase in funding of any council in Scotland, at 1.5 per cent. Obviously this makes the decisions we have to take more difficult.

“If we had received the same increase as the Scottish average, we would be in line for an additional £20m. And had we received the same increase as Perth and Kinross we would be in receipt of an extra £52m.”

The council’s cuts plan was criticised as a “rip-off” for the people of Glasgow by the SNP.

Bob Doris, SNP MSP for Glasgow, said next year’s local government settlement figures show Glasgow gets 25 per cent per head more than the Scottish average.

He said: “Labour have their priorities all wrong. Cutting public spending in the teeth of a recession is absolutely the wrong thing to do, and putting more Glaswegians out of work is unforgivable.”

A council spokesman said the final decision on the proposed budget is to be taken by the full council in early 2010, and is subject to amendment.