All East Renfrewshire residents are being invited to take part in a simple budget questionnaire that will run from November 16 to December 16 to share their views on the key issues that determine how council services are delivered in the future.

East Renfrewshire’s budget gap between 2013 and 2016 is estimated to be over £15million. In response to continuing reductions in public funding, the Council’s budget strategy group has agreed to continue its long-term approach to financial planning and plans to set a multi-year budget from 2013/14.

The Council estimates that savings totalling £10.96 million over the next two years are needed to deliver balanced budgets for these years.

East Renfrewshire Council Leader, Jim Fletcher explains, “It is vitally important that councils consult with local residents, service users and employees as much as possible prior to very important decisions being taken as these decisions could have an impact on the day to day services provided to residents by the Council.”

What we have to save

Despite delivering a balanced budget last year and successfully closing the budget gap in previous years, the pressure is on the Council once again to save money without significantly compromising important local services.

There are 5 different types of savings that have been identified and these are:

Service redesign savings - this is where we have looked at how we deliver a service to see if we can do it more efficiently e.g. can we do it with fewer staff or do it in a different way. The aim is to maximise efficiencies and in many cases the changes will be invisible to the public. However, in some cases there may be significant changes in how the service is delivered.
Asset savings - this is where we have identified buildings that we either no longer use or which are not used as well as they could be. It has then been decided that we can continue without holding on to a particular building.
Financial savings - this is where additional income could be achieved by increasing income streams, reducing the demand on council funding. This type of saving also reflects the reduced costs of financing the Council's loan debt taken out to help fund necessary investment in capital assets.
Procurement savings - this is where we save money by renegotiating contracts with external suppliers. Where possible this will be done in collaboration with other councils to maximise savings.
Other savings - this category is used to identify other savings which do not sit in the 4 categories listed above.
How you can have your say

First of all you should read the saving options package which is available on line at www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/budget or call 0141 577 3001 for a budget pack.

Once you have read over the pack and understood what savings are being proposed then please complete our online survey or fill in the budget pack feedback form which will ask your opinion on the different types of savings we have identified.

Feedback from all of the consultation will be made available via the Council website and will be provided to the budget strategy group in early January when all savings options will be considered.

If I ran my household budget like this mob I would get sent to Carstairs. If I knew that I needed to save 10k over the next two years, why would I go out and but a new car at 18k when I have perfectly good car in the garage.

£10 million requires to be saved yet they want to spend £18 million on a new health centre and offices when they already have one and the offices for the staff.

And where is the millions that were put aside for the Borheid College.

Good news, I've worked it out for them!

No OLM-Robslee corridor - £800k (although I imagine it will be well over a million when they announce a refurb of Robslee).

No health centre - £8 million.

They can make up the rest by cutting the lavish lunch buffet for councillors, they can bring their own pieces.

Is this only available online? Aren`t they posting through the doors? I guess that would cost money, but i'm sure we'll still get the magazine. And i'm sure like everything else it's already decided.

Isn't it easy to save this money? There's the savings Lasercow has suggested and if they managed their other school admissions properly i`m sure that would save a fortune too.

What about all these Cllr`s, do we get value for money? What's the total estimated cost + expenses?

What about department heads? Do we get value for money or can these roles be shared between Councils?

And if the planning dept are dishing out pp to anyone, are they required in their current form?

Glasgow primary and nursery schools to be rebuilt or revamped (from the bbc).



Funny, under 12 population rising in Glasgow. Luckily ours must be plummeting to fit all the new ER residents moving in.

Amazing isn't it considering we can't stay in the buildings we have.

You never know, maybe once they fill all the schools here with the new homes they are building using the new catchment areas they maybe forced to share a catchment area with a revamped Glasgow school

I wonder if they would have us?