ARGYLL and Bute councillors will hash out plans to slash the authority’s spending by more than £10 million when they decide their annual budget today (Thursday).

Although there are no plans to increase council tax – which currently generates £41m – all other options for savings options remain on the table.

In a statement ahead of today’s decisive meeting, Councillor Dick Walsh, council leader, said: “We all want to see more children in our schools, employment opportunities for our residents and an economy of growth.

“We are totally committed to listening to our communities and we will be taking their views into account as we finalise our budget proposals. However, there are no easy choices when you consider that we have £10.2m less to spend on essential services due to funding cuts.”

In a council report it was revealed Scottish Government funding to Argyll and Bute had been cut by four per cent, meaning that there is a funding gap of £10.2m.

Although at a national level negotiations have continued into this week in terms of the final settlement for Argyll and Bute Council, administration members have worked in partnership over a period of months to ensure that they produce a “balanced budget”. The local authority is expected to receive around £237m, including council tax revenue and Scottish Government funding of £196m.

The majority of the savings options put out for public consultation in November and December are contained in the administration’s budget proposals.

The saving options include scrapping all 10 of the council’s secondary school librarians, getting rid of lollipop staff, and cutting classroom assistant and clerical staff numbers in schools by 20 per cent.

There are also options for reducing financial support for advice services, grassing over flower beds and displays of roses and shrubs, closing 43 public toilets, as well as increasing fees and charges by three per cent.

If they are all accepted, they will reduce the authority’s spending by almost £8.4m in 2016-17, of which £1.004m would be management or operational savings – those without any implications for policies or staff numbers.

The cuts will also result in the loss of 184 full-time equivalent (FTE) in the same year, rising to more than 356 once planning “for future years” is accounted for. The General Fund has a balance of almost £6m.

Cllr Ellen Morton, depute leader, said: “All of our services are very much valued by people in our communities and that is why the choices we are facing are so difficult. As elected members we are very aware of our duty to do the best we can to protect our staff, who do such sterling work across all services and all geographic areas. I hope everyone knows that I, along with fellow administration members, value their work and sincerely regret that such difficult decisions have to be made.”

Cllr Gary Mulvaney, Helensburgh and Lomond area chair, said: “The UK government provided more money to Scotland this year, yet the SNP have decided to cut funding to local government. That means there will be tough choices for every council in Scotland and Argyll’s funding gap is over £10million.

"I did hope that our local SNP councillors, the so-called “three degrees” would have used their party connections to make a special case for Argyll and Bute but their silence is deafening."

He added: "I know that residents are keen to see big projects such as Helensburgh’s new swimming pool and leisure centre nudged along and progress in that area would be welcome.”

The three councillors who comprise the opposition Reform Group in the council chamber published their own alternative budget – based on a major decentralisation of power – on January 21, while the SNP, the largest single opposition group in the Kilmory council chamber, were also expected to release their own alternative spending plans.

Councillors have also been sent an open letter from the joint trade unions, including EIS, Unite, UNISON, GMB and UCATT, hitting out at a lack of clarity over the proposed cuts.

The statement said: "At this late stage we still believe there are steps that can and should be taken to alleviate some of the pain, and on that basis we make this submission hoping bold, brave and innovative approaches can be adopted to avoid the total cuts budget we believe is about to be unleashed on Argyll and Bute."

"We still not have seen equality impact assessments for the proposed cuts which leads us to believe this work has not been meaningfully done, accordingly we believe that the most vulnerable and discriminated against will be the hardest hit."

All legitimate avenues should be explored to mitigate, alleviate and oppose austerity cuts. They added a taskforce should be set up to deal with the impact of public sector cuts.

The final decision on funding cuts will be made at a budget meeting on Thursday at 2pm following a meeting of the policy and resources committee at 10am.