Published: Thursday, 4th December, 2008 5:30am

Consultation good but education"cuts" a worry

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Full marks to East Lothian Council for its document "You Pay… Now Have Your Say".

It highlights many of the issues facing local government in the next three years, not least the likely impact of the credit crunch on East Lothian Council"s finances.

Some very difficult decisions are clearly going to be made and full consultation with those affected - the vast majority of your readers for a start - should help build up understanding of the need for these.

A truly consultative process, I would suggest, demands a dynamic two-way flow of ideas from the public to the council and vice versa.

For this purpose, it would help enormously if ELC set up a blog for comments on the document and also if councillors were prepared to record their observations on relevant responses during the consultation period itself.

At the very least, councillors might be willing to answer questions raised on the proposed budget through the columns of your newspaper.

It would be a tragedy if the consultation process was perceived to be a sham like the earlier one (under the previous administration) on Musselburgh Racecourse; should radical changes to the present budget figures be made following this public dialogue there will be good reason to believe that the council is listening.

Turning to the detail of the consultation document, I will - hopefully along with many of your readers - be making a submission.

A few initial thoughts: no mention is made of ways of increasing revenue from services; those council employees, for instance, who do not need to use cars for their work might be charged (as often happens in the private sector) for their car parking spaces, thus releasing valuable spaces - again in return for a fee for shoppers.

Wage costs must make up a huge proportion of the council budget; we cannot afford to continue with index-linking future pension entitlements.

No serious attempt has been made to justify the proposed increase in the percentage allocation to corporate services.

Finally, the proposal to cut back (again) education"s share of the budget is especially disappointing; if we do not invest more in our children"s future, the chances of us maintaining our lifestyles in an increasingly competitive world are zero.

Please councillors, think this one over very carefully indeed.

Angus Tulloch

Southfield House

Longniddry