Published 06 March 2025
West Dunbartonshire Council’s budget for 2025/26 has been set with an 11.5% Council Tax rise agreed to help close a £7.7m funding gap.
During a meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council, a range of savings options were rejected, safeguarding current provision of school transport; school swimming lessons; Modern Apprenticeship investment; music tuition; and the elderly welfare grant as well as maintaining investment in street lighting, funding to external organisations, and retaining the area’s two civic amenity sites, six bowling clubs and Clydebank Town Hall.
But acknowledging the legal obligation to set a balanced budget while doing as much as possible to continue delivering essential services, it was agreed some proposals would progress to help close the gap.
Many of the options progressing are services the Council has heavily subsidised in the past and are no longer sustainable.
These include removal of funding to support the Loch Lomond Highland Games, and the closure of Dalmuir Golf Course which has seen a steady decline in membership costing the Council £145,000 to subsidise in 2024/25.
An option to cease the Care of Gardens scheme, which costs the Council £143,000 more to deliver than the income it generates each year, was also agreed.
Other savings agreed at the meeting include the removal of two automated public toilets; a reduction in park maintenance; removal of the Community Budgeting fund; a reduction in school crossing patrollers with 17 posts maintained across the area; removal of open space maintenance for non-council land; changes to the winter gritting routes, removal of footway gritting, a reduction in grass cutting and the closure of Clydebank Registration Office
As part of the budget meeting, in order to reduce the savings required to be implemented, members also agreed to a Council Tax increase of 11.5%.
Councillor Martin Rooney, Leader of West Dunbartonshire Council, said: “We all want to do the best for our communities, but the truth is that the continuing financial instability, scarce resource, and the ongoing need to make savings, means it has become impossible to identify options to balance the budget while continuing to provide services in the same way.
“This means we are faced with these incredibly difficult choices and while we don’t want to implement any of these savings, they are our only remaining options to balance our budgets and work towards a sustainable future for West Dunbartonshire.
“We have thought long and hard about the best way forward for our council and the people we serve, and we believe our budget gives us the best chance of financial stability for 2025/26 and beyond.”
Depute Council Leader, Councillor David McBride, added: “The Council is responsible for providing so many truly vital services that huge numbers of our residents, particularly our most vulnerable, rely on. Those residents are at the forefront of our minds and that is why many of the options we have progressed with are those that, while they are valued, perhaps don’t hold the same level of need as others do.
“The savings taken help close the budget gap as well as ensure continued support to West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership; West Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust and the Valuation Joint Board for 2025/26.”
The agreed budget motion is available below.