Gussie's News

The SIC starts 2011 with arguably its biggest and most important agenda for many years. The Accounts Commission for Scotland's 2010 Enquiry left all of us councillors in no doubt that we have been living beyond our sustainable means for some years. Maintaining Council services, at their present level and quality, is only possible as a result of spending Shetland's community savings, otherwise known as the Reserve Fund. This Fund was the main repository of money negotiated by our councillor predecessors under the Sullom Voe Disturbance Agreement. This agreement ended in year 2000 since when the only income the Reserve Fund has received has been from its stock market investments.

During the past financial year we have taken £36.9 million to supplement SIC's government grant to keep the place running; the Shetland Charitable Trust has donated a further £11 million, totalling £47.9 million in all.The Accounts Commssion, and the Scottish Government has advised that this is unaccceptable and prompted us to put the SIC's affairs in better order and sort the way we run our affairs. They have remarked on the lack of a proper corporate decision-making process within the council and a preoccupation with parochial interests.

We have responded by submitting to them an "Improvement Plan" which we will now have to deliver on. Not only will we have to find ways and means of maintaining our level of services without over reliance on Reserves, we will also have to demonstrate that we are capable of taking the difficult decisions necessary to bring that about. The current Blueprint for Education initiative illustrates just how difficult that process is for some members.

However, between the Reserve Fund and the Shetland Charitable Trust Shetland has savings of approximately £400 million, so we're not exactly broke so we ought to be able to manage!