Council cannot be ‘bank of mum and dad’ to Live Borders

Councillor David Parker expressed concern at the ongoing bailouts when the council is seeking to identify substantial savings.

Cash-strapped Scottish Borders Council cannot become a ‘bank of mum and dad’ to Live Borders, a concerned councillor has warned after the local authority’s culture, sports and leisure provider received a £600k bailout.

A meeting of the full council recently endorsed the cash support so Live Borders could pay its staff the real Living Wage (£12 an hour) from April 2024.

In December last year councillors also agreed to dip into the local authority’s reserves to plug the charity’s £1.5m funding gap.

Members were informed that “without this financial support the Trust will not be able to meet its projected financial liabilities in the current year”.

At the full council meeting, Councillor David Parker, independent for Leaderdale and Melrose, expressed concern at the ongoing bailouts at a time when the council was seeking to identify substantial savings.

He said: “My fundamental concern here is the amount of money we are spending to stabilise the position. I do think that our officers need to be careful that they are making sure that as a council we are properly ensuring value for money and doing the right thing by the public purse.

“The reality is that we are taking £1.5m out of reserves to make sure we can fund this, so things can be stable in 2024/25 and we are going to have to identify another £600,000 during the new financial year to add to the Live Borders budget in 2025/26 to pay for all the things we support in relation to the Living Wage.

“It looks to me that the decisions we are making today mean that during 24/25, so that Live Borders can start the year off in 25/26 in a sustainable way, there will need to be savings of £1.5m. That is a saving Live Borders has not remotely achieved to date and one that is absolutely necessary.

“The council can not become the bank of mum and dad to Live Borders. We have a responsibility that we ensure value for money. Nobody wants to make cuts to services, nobody wants to close anything, but what is absolutely clear is that the current size, shape and scale of Live Borders can’t continue as it is, unless SBC can grow a magic money tree.”