West Lothian Council gets more than 10,000 responses on budget cuts - Daily Record

It is the highest response the council has ever achieved and also outstrips the feedback neighbouring authorities have had over their own budget plans.

West Lothian Council received more than 10,000 responses and almost 30,000 comments to a month-long public consultation on budget cuts in the closing weeks of 2025.

It is the highest response the council has ever achieved and also outstrips the feedback neighbouring authorities have had over their own budget plans.

But not until a series of special meetings early next month will councillors see the detailed proposals officers have come up with for savings after unpacking the findings.

Broad brush responses from the public were delivered to this month’s meeting of the Executive.

Carrie Heron, the Executive project officer with the council, told the meeting 10,051 responses had been made and 28,400 individual comments. The bulk of the responses were made on-line.

The council invited partners, community groups, and other organisations to participate in the survey. A total of 143 named groups and organisations took part in the consultation, which represented over 1,600 people.

The consultation also sought feedback on Council Tax and participants were asked if they would support an increase in Council Tax if all funding raised was spent on key services.

A total of 5,953 respondents answered the question “Would you support an increase in Council Tax if all funding raised was spent on key services?”

Overall, 51.79% of respondents agreed. This gives the Council a clear and positive basis to consider this option. Council Tax, however, only makes up around 19% of the total funding that Councils receive.

This is a significant amount of money, but within the context of the total spent by Councils each year on essential local services such as education, collecting bins, maintaining roads and providing care services, Council Tax income is a relatively small amount.

Because of the relatively small proportion of total council spending met by Council Tax, increasing Council Tax alone cannot resolve the financial challenges facing Councils

Graham Hope the council’s Chief Executive told councillors that a series of Policy Development and Scrutiny Panels (PDSPs) would meet to discuss proposals for each area of the council operations.

Lib Dem councillor, Sally Pattle, had a list of questions around issues including potential building closures. She was assured that all councillors could attend and have questions answered at these dedicated PDSP meetings.

West Lothian’s cash settlement from Holyrood won’t be certain until the end of the month as the Scottish Budget was delayed until this week.

Mrs Heron told the meeting: “ The response rate is unprecedented and exceeds the response rate to consultations in previous years. Benchmarking shows no-one has achieved the response rate that we have. We are very grateful to all those who have taken part.”

The Your Council, Your Say consultation sought feedback on a range of budget options available to the council, as the local authority seeks to reduce costs and balance the council’s budget across the next two years - something the council is legally required to do.

Residents agreed by 91% that council officers should look at more efficient ways of working. They also backed, by 59% to 41% proposals for the council to generate more income.

A reduction in council properties and cuts to non- statutory services all got the thumbs up.

The devil will be in the details of proposed cuts. Councillors praised staff for the breadth and depth of the consultation. The SNP’s depute group leader Councillor Pauline Stafford praised the inclusion of pupils in local schools, for encouraging them to understand how services work for communities.

“There’s a huge amount of work that’s been done here. It’s really good to see how clear and tangible examples were easy to understand. Quite often in consultations it’s quite high level and people don’t really understand the cuts they face until it’s too late.”

“The number of young people involved is fantastic. I think it’s really important just for their civic engagement so they can understand what the impact will be on them.

“It is interesting to see that 55 % of those who responded were women compared to 36% for men. Women are the shock absorbers of poverty.”

Councillor Susan Manion, Labour’s depute leader, praised the consultation as a “phenomenal piece of work”. Recognising the tight time line in which the council has to make budget decisions she said the results of the consultation were a “good platform.”

Based on the latest information available, forecasts show that West Lothian Council faces a revenue budget gap of approximately £23million over the next two years (2026/27 to 2027/28) although this is expected to increase.

The gap is caused by rising costs of providing council services combined with insufficient levels of funding to support all council services.

Over 80% of the council’s budget comes from Scottish Government Grant Funding whilst Council Tax makes up around 19% of a council’s budget.

In its latest assessment of local government finances, the Accounts Commission reported this year that mounting pressures from inflation, increasing costs and demand are exceeding the Scottish Government’s additional investment in Scotland’s councils.

It confirmed that intensifying service demands, including social care as Scotland’s population ages, mean Scottish councils had to cover a budget shortfall of £647 million in 2025/26.

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