FURTHER cuts to council funding would be catastrophic for residents according to Irvine councillor and COSLA head David O’Neill.

The Irvine West councillor and COSLA president said that there shouldn’t be further cuts to local authorities when the Scottish Government should be investing in communities.

A special meeting of council leaders took place in Edinburgh on Tuesday, and the COSLA president and Scottish Labour councillor is urging Scottish ministers to preserve funding in this week’s budget.

The local government revenue settlement funding for councils is due to be announced on Thursday, along with the budget.

Cllr O’Neill told the Irvine Times: “There shouldn’t be cuts, we should be investing in communities. The people who provide services working in local government are service users and taxpayers themselves. If they lose jobs or have less hours that affects communities.

“No structure will be affected but services and communities will be affected. Support services for kids, care for your granny, cutting grass, fixing potholes, simple things like that.

On BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, he said: “The Scottish Government has a political choice here and with additional cash of £418million for next year there should be no cut to local government.”

Cllr O’Neill added: “A cut of the magnitude of last year’s £349 million would have a disastrous impact on both communities and services.”

The Scottish Government said local authorities had been treated fairly despite cuts to the overall Scottish budget by Westminster.