I SAID at cabinet that this was the most difficult budget we had ever faced. Since the cabinet secretary’s further announcement, the position has worsened.

Wee had assumed and included an additional £3 million in our draft budget and only received £1.7 million. The raising of the council tax cap means an additional £1 million can be raised from East Lothian residents. This leaves an additional shortfall of £300,000 to be added to the updated shortfall of £5 million and the already-included cuts of £5.6 million.

This means that very difficult decisions require to be taken, decisions that need to be taken in the understanding that this council provides services people need and rely on.

Be in no doubt that the three-year budget before us today will impact on council staff and groups and individuals in our community. The decisions we take will not be done lightly, it will be with regret and in the belief that they will be the least damaging.

But as usual, this administration will own the decisions we take and will be prepared to meet with those individuals and groups that are affected, explain the rational behind the decisions and express our regret.

I wish I could say the same for our Government, they have decided once again to make local government bear the brunt of their cuts. But rather than own their decisions and accept it will have damaging consequences for the people of Scotland, they have tried to mislead the public, falsely claiming that funding to local government has increased.

I saw the cabinet secretary at the finance committee hearing, insisting that every council had an increase in funding. While the statement was arithmetically correct, the cabinet secretary, along with everyone in the room, knew that the additional funding was to pay for new burdens and every council in Scotland was receiving a real cut in their budget.

Instead of being honest and explaining the reason behind the decisions that he has every right to take, he continued with his misleading claim he had provided local government with extra money. The only emotions he displayed were arrogance and a smugness that frankly I found distasteful and unbecoming a person in his position.

We have done everything to lessen the impact on frontline services; we are raising the maximum council tax we are allowed to protect the public, using reserves that we had not planned to use and would rather not have. We are also using an anticipated change in the loans fund in years two and three to minimise the cuts.

With regard to reserves, we are using a combination of general services capital fund and the cost reduction fund in year one, and in accordance with the financial strategy will replenish the fund over the following three years, principally by reserving any benefit from the loan charge fund changes to do this.

The challenges we face are significant but we will not shirk our responsibilities, we will take the decisions that we need to take to protect the people of East Lothian in the long term, no matter how difficult or regretful they may be.

The budget today protects education, adult and children’s services, commits capital spending of over £300 million protecting and improving the infrastructure of East Lothian, creating jobs and training opportunities.

Finally, I would like to thank the chief executive and her management team, in particular Mr Lamond and Ms Fortune for their assistance.

My thanks go to all council staff for all their hard work over the past year providing the services our communities depend on.