Members were told that the council will need to save an estimated £64.4 million over the next five years if they have any hope of balancing the books.

The council’s chief finance officer, Amanda Templeman, told members on Wednesday that the council has managed this year by using more than £18 million of one-off funding.

That figure includes £15 million of ‘service concessions’ – money that was freed up when the council was given longer to make repayments to its PFI schools, effectively meaning it had ‘overpaid’ by around £79 million. But councillors have been told that this cash will not last for long and drastic changes must be made to put the council on a sustainable footing.

Falkirk Council is facing a £65m shortfall over next five years. Picture: Michael Gillen

Ms Templeman set out “a way forward” for the council on Wednesday as she asked councillors to back a five-year financial strategy, although she acknowledged it would be “a difficult path”.

She told councillors that the days of being given a list of options to choose from were gone. Even if every option for savings being put forward were to be taken and council tax raised by five per cent, there would still be a £30 million shortfall.

Ms Templeman said it was important to remember there was a lot of uncertainty around all of the predictions, with inflation, interest rates and economic performance all remaining volatile.

This year’s pay award to council staff has also still to be settled and the Scottish Government grant to councils – which makes up 80 per cent of the council’s income – will not be known until December at the earliest.

Amanda Templeman, chief finance officer, gave the grim warning to councillors. Picture: Lisa Evans / Falkirk Council.

Another unknown is a new agreement between CoSLA and the Scottish Government – known as the Verity House agreement – which has yet to be finalised. Members expect that it will mean that Holyrood will put less pressure on councils to ringfence money for government projects, but the detail still needs to be clarified.

However, Ms Templeman said it was very unlikely that more money would be forthcoming from the Scottish Government as it is also facing a funding gap of around £1 billion in 2024/25.

Another flat cash settlement from the Scottish Government will mean, however, that the council is likely to need a combination of council tax rises, service cuts and increased fees and charges, on top of any money coming from service concessions.

While councillors were not being asked to take any decisions at the meeting, Ms Templeman said that it was important to know the context of any decisions that councillors are being asked to take.

The Labour group leader, Councillor Anne Hannah, accepted the strategy but added an instruction to write to the First Minister “to emphasise the seriousness of the financial position Falkirk Council is in, and to call on the Scottish Government to provide improved financial support”.

The SNP council leader, Councilor Cecil Meiklejohn, agreed as long as they would also write to the Prime Minister, since the UK Government “is the only government able to raise budgets”.

Conservative group leader James Kerr also agreed, saying: “Write to anybody – write to Donald Trump if you want. I’m not bothered who the money comes from, we just need more money!”

Their hope for more money was made all the more urgent as councillors went on to reject one of the savings that council officers were urging them to accept.

Opposition councillors refused to back a plan to change school buses that would have saved the council £1 million a year, saying they could not accept the negative it would have on more than 1600 Falkirk Council pupils.

Falkirk Council: Councillors plea to governments for more cash as they face £65m funding shortfall