SCHOOL crossing patrollers in Argyll and Bute have been saved from the axe for a third time – but council tax in the area will rise by a hefty 5 per cent.

The decisions were made after the council’s ruling Argyll, Lomond and the Islands (TALIG) group saw its budget plans approved on a knife-edge vote.

Both the TALIG group - comprising Conservative, Liberal Democrat and some independent councillors -  and the authority’s Strategic Opposition Partnership (SNP, Labour, Green and other independents) agreed to reject the savings option relating to school crossing patrollers.

However the TALIG budget will see all such posts which have been vacant for a year or more removed.

The 5 per cent rise in council tax bills is the steepest increase set in Argyll and Bute since the SNP Scottish Government's policy of freezing council tax was ended in 2016.

School crossing patrols had been considered as a savings option in 2019/20, and again in 2020/21, but were saved by the authority’s previous ruling councillors on both occasions.

The two budget proposals for 2023/24 differed only on the retention of the council’s cultural co-ordinator post, with the opposition group wanted to keep after hearing representations from key figures.

However, the TALIG budget was passed by 18 votes to 17 after a roll call vote at the full council meeting on Thursday, February 23.

Moving the TALIG budget proposal, council leader Robin Currie (Liberal Democrat, Kintyre and the Islands) said: “Today is the first budget in the life of this new council in its new five-year term. However, the context we are working in is all too familiar.

“It has featured in many budget meetings over the past decade and even further back. It is a story that has been told again and again as councils find themselves having to consider even more difficult decisions.

“They have to defend, again, even more challenging savings proposals. They have to find, again, places to save money where these have become fewer and fewer over the years when services have already been cut to the bone.

“We are doing all we can to ensure Argyll and Bute is defined as a success story, a story of triumph in the face of adversity, and of delivering in extremely challenging financial circumstances.”

His motion was seconded by his deputy as leader, Helensburgh Central Conservative Councillor Gary Mulvaney, who said: “This council alone has had to find over £80million of savings in the past decade.

“That is £80m worth of reasons we have nowhere left to go when it comes to finding savings. Those who have been here longer will know that when the papers have come out, we have had whole lists of savings. This year it was only a handful, because we have already taken all the rest.”

Other elements of the successful TALIG budget include no increase to school meal charges next year – the opposition budget would have subjected those charges to a six per cent increase along with other council fees.

Councillor Julie McKenzie (SNP, Oban North and Lorn) was the only councillor who was not in attendance, either in person or virtually, at Thursday's meeting. She had submitted her apologies in advance.

However, had she attended, and backed the opposition group's spending plans, the TALIG budet would almost certainly still have won the day with the backing of Conservative Provost Maurice Corry's casting vote.

The 5 per cent rise in council tax bills eclipses the 4.75 per cent increase voted through in 2019.