This article appears as part of the Lessons to Learn newsletter.

Right now, Dumfries and Galloway Council is running an open consultation exercise as it plans budget proposals for the coming year.

The process opened on 17 October and runs until 23 November, with the actual budget to be decided on February 26.

As has been the case for what seems like my entire lifetime, this is all happening in the context of falling funding levels and, it seems, inevitable cuts to critical services. Indeed, on the council’s own website, officials warn:

“Like councils across Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway Council faces difficult financial choices in the years ahead. Rising costs and growing demand for services mean every pound must stretch further, while funding isn’t keeping pace.”

In order to “help meet this challenge”, councils have apparently “agreed to consult early and openly on a range of potential savings and income-generation options”.

This is similar to the approach previously adopted by North Ayrshire Council, which also laid out a menu of unpalatable options months in advance of a recent budget process, and the direct opposite of the approach taken by Glasgow City Council, whose education convener defended adopting a secretive process where residents only found out that their representatives were voting for teaching cuts after the fact.

So what sort........

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