West Lothian Council has vowed to ensure that key infrastructure areas such as education and roads are protected as it gets set to agree its revenue budget for 2016/17 tomorrow.
The revenue budget is expected to total over £386 million, however the council has warned that it will have to make over £21m worth of savings between 2016/17 and 2017/18 as funding from the Scottish Government is not enough to meet the council’s budget pressures of an increasing population and rising costs.
Overall, in 2016/17 over £11m of savings need to be made by the council - which is one of the largest ever cuts to the council’s budget within any one year.
Leader of West Lothian Council, John McGinty, said: “Despite huge challenges, we are confident that we are making the correct choices for local residents and for West Lothian.
“Schools, care for the elderly, improving the local economy and maintaining good, quality roads and footpaths are all key areas for the council and each of these areas will see significant investment this year.
“We are planning to spend approximately £142m on schools, £95m on social care services and around £55m on maintaining West Lothian’s roads, paths, waste services, facilities management and infrastructure.”
The key areas for investment include:
Education
£2.8m for new school halls at Peel Primary, Broxburn Primary and Carmondean Primary.
Over £1.7m worth of improvements in the provision of support for children with special needs, as well as major projects at Blackridge Primary and Torphichen Primary School.
Nearly £1m will be spent on improving sports facilities at St Mary’s Primary School in Bathgate.
Approximately £600,000 will be spent on building a new nursery in Mid Calder.
Bathgate Academy will see a £1.3m investment to extend the facility for future increases in capacity, as will Livingston Village Primary (£700,000), Parkhead Primary, West Calder (£797,000), St Nicholas Primary, Broxburn (£650,000) and Simpson Primary, Bathgate (£400,000).
Over £6.3m is being spent on delivering a new Southdale Primary school in Armadale and a further £2.3m will be used to extend St Anthony’s Primary school also in Armadale.
Roads
Investment of £7.6m has been budgeted over the next two years to upgrade and maintain roads and footways. West Lothian’s roads ranked joint second in the Scottish Road Maintenance Condition surveys for 2013/14. West Lothian also has the best U class roads and second best A class roads in Scotland, which together represent around 77 per cent of the road network.
Infrastructure will also benefit with over £6m being invested in improving structures and transportation, including a new Drumshoreland Distributor Road, which will be vital in facilitating further development in the area.
Over £2.6m will be invested to improve road lighting across West Lothian.
In excess of £2m will be invested in flood prevention and drainage works, including £1.2m invested in the Broxburn Flood Prevention scheme.
Over £2.3m will be invested in town centres and villages.
Nearly £1m will be spent on improving road safety, including cycling and walking facilities.
Open Spaces
£3.5m will be invested in open spaces and sports facilities. This includes a £218,000 being spent on the regeneration of the woodland areas. Over £300,000 will be spent at Kettilstoun Mains in Linlithgow.
£116,000 will be invested at Balbardie Park of Peace in Bathgate, £117,000 at Bankton Mains Park in Livingston, £85,000 at Linlithgow Loch Park and £76,000 at Watson Park in Armadale.
Over £800,000 will be spent on new play areas across the county, including a new Play Area and Skatepark at Blaeberryhill, Whitburn and a new Skatepark at Balbardie Park, Bathgate.
Pinewood Primary School will receive a new Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) as will Kirkhill Primary, Broxburn.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
Over £10m will be spent over the next two years to improve Information and Communications Technology including school ICT infrastructure, improving connectivity within schools and upgrading of hardware.
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