Highland Council's austerity budget consultation item 12 states:
"The Council currently spends £367,000 growing its own flowers in nurseries and also plants and maintains flower beds in public spaces across Highland. Some communities in Highland have successfully been maintaining flower beds and communal areas to a good standard for many years with financial assistance from ward discretionary funds, common good funds etc.
We are keen to encourage this more widely. If community groups were to take over the Council’s floral displays and plant nurseries all over Highland, we would save around £367,000 per year. If groups are not able to take on these flower beds then we propose to resurface these areas (grass, bark etc.) to cut back on maintenance.
What difference would this change make?"
You can see the consultation questions here and two previous Gurn articles if you scroll down the page.
You can see the consultation questions here and two previous Gurn articles if you scroll down the page.
7 comments:
Sensible suggestion. When the budget leader was surveying prior to this plan I did suggest they should commercialise more. Get businesses sponsoring. E.g. Nairn has two golf clubs with lots of landscape maintenance kit. Could they maintain maggot or links etc. In return for advertising.
I'll be impressed by HC's budget cuts the day that they start getting rid of layers of management on high salaries, not likely to happen I know but I can but hope
Meanwhile we're left to squabble amongst ourselves as to what services are to be cut
Arguably flowers are not a vital service but who knows as the what positive effect they have on visitors when they enter a town
The vision for the future looks very bleak as this is just the start of the cuts and yet we have our pals in the south investing millions of our monies in projects like the high speed rail link
Aye, better together
Agree with that. Welcome to the first taster cuts of the NO scenario. Plenty more to come as the safety net gets taken away.
Increase council tax, services require to be funded, what better way to fund them. You get what you pay for.
Council tax only amounts to a very small percentage of the cost of public services, so increasing it even substantially would make very little difference to the cuts that we face
The great majority of money for such services comes from Westminster, Scotland is not alone in facing having to make huge savings
Once again, better together
These cuts have been forcast for quiet sometime,council jobs in the front line will definately go.The council depot at balblair depot might end up as housing one dayl.All this and Nairn is set to grow,aye yor right better together my ****.
I have noticed in recent years the flower beds at Achareidh along the A96 are beautifully kept by volunteers, I assume.A big well done to them
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