Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Your chance to save the budget!

Post Thumbnail

Highland Council is giving you a chance to balance its books – with the use of a budget simulator.

The online novelty is a way of gauging public thinking while offering folk a “virtual” chance to help plug a multimillion-pound gap within a month.

The launch coincided with a fresh spat between the council’s independent administration and the SNP opposition group.

Budget leader Bill Fernie took the opportunity to highlight cuts in government grants to councils while SNP group leader Maxine Smith claimed her Holyrood colleagues had protected services.

The online simulator gives an insight into bleak financial choices.

Councillor Fernie said: “In the last six years, about £135million has been taken out of our budget. This year sees another substantial reduction. Together with increases in costs, the budget gap is around £26million.

“We’ve done our best to look at how to make savings while causing the least impact on essential services and jobs.”

He said the simulator could not include the entire budget but challenged people to attempt the “difficult task” of saving £14million.

With February 16 budget day fast approaching, the two politicians have radically different interpretations of the Scottish Government’s decision to scrap a proposed £5million levy from an imposed increase in higher band council tax intended to help tackle the nation’s education attainment gap.

The decision followed protests from councillors desperate to retain the extra funding locally.

Councillor Smith said it would “assist local authorities in balancing their budgets.”

Mr Fernie said: “The figure I would ask councillor Smith to focus on is a cut in our core grant of 3.86%, equivalent to nearly £18million. We asked for flat cash, we got a cut of nearly 4%.”

The budget simulator is online at

https://highland.budgetsimulator.com/