Cllrs are warned of 14% cut to the budget

HOPES that funding for additional outdoor staff would be provided in this year’s budget were dashed on Monday after members of the West Cork Municipal District were told that they are facing a 14% cut in their annual budget.

Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy (FF) was first out of the blocks to reject a proposal by the Council’s chief executive that the local authority would reduce some of its annual spend by 14%.

‘It’s not acceptable,’ he said, ‘especially as costs are increasing, so on every level we will not be getting a decent bang for our buck.’

Suggestions by the municipal district officer and the ceo that the draft budget was ‘a work in progress’ and that there might be additional income, as well as a possible rate increase, was not enough to stem the angry response of the councillors.

Cllr Murphy proposed that the draft budget – which specifies some reductions in non-pay services, such as maintenance works – would be rejected.

Cllr Joe Carroll (FF) agreed. ‘What we had was not good enough and to be asked to take a reduction is out of the question completely,’ he said.

‘We have no intention of accepting this budget,’ he added. After years asking for the figures for the West Cork Municipal District outdoor staff, he said people were shocked to hear the results.

The Council recently confirmed that there are 780 full-time equivalent outdoor workers employed by the Council but the number in 2008 was 1,162.

Cllr Carroll said the figures confirmed what the members had been saying about the lack of outdoor staff, particularly in Skibbereen, where there were five outdoor workers and a foreman based in the town pre-2014, but now there is just one person whose duties are spread from Baltimore to Rosscarbery.

Cllr Deirdre Kelly (FF) also rejected the draft budget and Cllr Paul Hayes (Ind) also expressed his dismay. ‘We have been looking for additional funding to provide more staff,’ he said.

West Cork Municipal District chairman,Cllr Declan Hurley (Ind) swiftly called the meeting to a close. From beginning to end, it took the councillors 12 minutes to dismiss the budget and conclude the meeting.

‘Rather than wasting time on something that is not fit for purpose,’ Cllr Hurley said, ‘the WCMD rejects the draft proposal before us.’

The chairman noted that every time the councillors asked for information about the number of outdoor staff, and if the number of workers could be increased, they were told to raise the matter in the context of the budget meeting.

‘To have our request for additional staff not only ignored, but diminished, is infuriating and insulting to the councillors and the people of West Cork,’ said Cllr Hurley.