Council cuts - 'We are seeing only the tip of the iceberg'

THERE'S something for everyone in the city council proposals revealed in this newspaper today. Something for everyone to hate, that is.

Faced with the need to save upwards of 90 million in the next three years officials have drawn up wide-ranging plans for cuts.

One which will cause consternation across the city is the suggestion that rubbish collections should happen on a fortnightly rather than a weekly basis.

Those who think that emptying the bins is the only useful thing the local authority does in exchange for its council tax will warn that this can only lead to festering rubbish and fly-tipping.

Council leader Jenny Dawe admits similar problems could arise from another possible cut, the loss of a recycling depot. The fact that it is in her ward should at least put paid to accusations of parochialism by administration politicians.

And there's more - much more. Public toilets could close, despite Lib Dems pledging to keep them open in their last local manifesto. Care homes may go. Garden Aid fees could double to 150.

Library services are also being targeted, with one in five jobs at risk. Meanwhile the plans for bin collections could put paid to another 40 posts in refuse collection.

The News has already reported other cost-cutting plans, including the axing of lollipop men and women and the threat to sports centres run by Edinburgh Leisure.

And yet the most remarkable thing about the proposals is that they do not include any "big ticket" savings such as school closures.

In fact, the sum total of cuts suggested so far amounts to about 42 million - well short of half what the council will have to find.

It may be that the administration has learned from the pain caused by its massive school closure plan three years ago, and is instead drip-feeding the bad news.

Or perhaps they expect to be able to fill the gap by raising council tax or through privatising services and alternative business models.

But it seems clear that we are seeing only the tip of the iceberg.

The council's public meetings are welcome and offers local people a chance to speak out against specific savings.

Some will doubtless take the chance to ask how we got in this mess in the first place too.

But it won't be enough just to complain and to oppose savings we don't like. Cuts HAVE to be made; the question is: "Where?"