In an effort to make sure South Ayrshire is an attractive destination to live, work and visit, and for residents to take pride in living in the region, the council proposed a capital investment programme of £408 million for towns and villages over the next 12 years. This includes additional investment of £22m for Ayr Town Centre, and £2m each for Maybole, Troon and Prestwick over the coming years.

The council wants to make sure that everyone benefits from high quality education and is supported to learn and fulfil their potential, so it is to invest £2.6m in education to help improve attainment across our schools. It is also allocating additional funding to free school meals programme, and to ongoing works at the new Girvan Primary School and Maybole Community Campus.

A key priority is making sure that everyone can access the care they need, so the council is investing £100m in the South Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) - a 9.1% increase on previous years. £22m of funding will also be allocated to the redevelopment of the former Hourstons Department Store for HSCP service users and staff.

As part of the council’s plans to generate more income, in July this year it will be introducing a £50 charge for garden waste collections (based on servicing one bin per household). More information about this service will be available for residents soon.

Part of this year’s budget was considering a programme of activities designed to address savings targets over the next two years. These proposals are now available to view in our budget book here, and will be put forward for consultation in due course.

Leader of South Ayrshire Council, Councillor Martin Dowey, said: “This budget has been developed against a financially challenging background, but despite this I’m pleased we’ve been able to balance the books.

“Although we have savings to make, we are aware of the financial hardship the cost-of-living crisis has caused for many local people, and we hope the Council Tax freeze will help with this.

“Community engagement is really important to us. We want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to influence and contribute to the decisions being made, so I’d encourage all residents to participate in our budget consultation.”

South Ayrshire Council’s portfolio holder for finance, ICT and procurement, Councillor Ian Davis, added: “In this budget we have prioritised protecting our essential services while focusing on income generation for future years.

“There will be challenges in the coming years, but that’s why we are planning ahead and proposing a range of ways that we can address our savings targets. The public can provide their feedback on these proposals by taking part in our budget consultation, which is open until 30 June.”