West Lothian Council has vowed to protect the most vulnerable groups and ensure that key priority areas such as education, social care, infrastructure and anti-poverty measures are protected as it gets set to agree its revenue budget for 2016/17 tomorrow.

The council’s revenue budget is expected to total over £386 million with a freeze in council tax at current levels also set to be agreed for 2016/17.

However the council has warned that it will have to make over £21 million worth of savings between 2016/17 and 2017/18 as funding from the Scottish Government is not enough to meet the council’s budget pressures, which include an increasing population and rising costs.

Overall, in 2016/17 over £11m of savings need to be made by the council - which is one of the largest ever cuts to the council’s budget within any one year. To enable the council to balance its budget, some changes to existing services will have to be made.

Despite this, the council has made a commitment to protect the area’s most vulnerable groups.

Leader of West Lothian Council, John McGinty, said: “With an increasing demand for services and limited funds available to us, preparing the council budget for 2016/17 has involved some of the toughest decisions that we have ever had to consider since the council was founded nearly 20 years ago.

“Across Scotland, councils are not being given enough funding to pay for the services that we want to provide. However, by prioritising the services that matter most to local people, we have a budget that focuses on and meets the needs of local people whilst protecting services that have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable members of our society, including young people, the elderly and those on low incomes.

“For example, we are pleased to enhance spending on social care provision by retaining eligibility criteria at existing levels, and keep charging at the lowest level of any council in Scotland. This will ensure eligibility for care in West Lothian is open to all levels of assessed need, and income from social care charges remains the lowest per head of population in Scotland.”

He added: “Another key area is protecting local people from the impact of welfare changes. The council is taking steps to increase the Living Wage which will help around 1,900 working people to receive higher salaries. West Lothian Leisure staff and social care staff contracted by the council will also benefit from the Living Wage. We will also continue to use Discretionary Housing Payments to fully mitigate the impact of the bedroom tax on our community.”

He added: “We are a well-run council and we have focussed on planning ahead for these very difficult times. By setting a three year budget last year we were able to plan our savings in advance. We know that this approach is regarded as best practice by Audit Scotland and we believe that this has ensured that the impact on local communities and services is minimised.

“Make no mistake; because of Scottish Government funding restrictions, this is an extremely difficult time for local government. Hard decisions are necessary, but we believe the choices we have made, in consultation with our communities, will ensure the council continues to deliver important local services for West Lothian’s residents.”