When Dundee’s councillors enter the main council chamber on Thursday afternoon, they will be well aware that the decisions they will take will affect every man, woman and child in the city.
For the special meeting of the policy and resources committee will set the budgetand therefore the services that the council can provideover the coming year.
The council has to make cuts of £15m.
The contentious Changing for the Future Board was set up by the SNP-led administration as a multi-party forum to look at areas where money could be saved, but met in private and, as a result, was boycotted by opposition councillors.
They are likely to be just as ill-disposed to some of the plans laid before them on Thursday.
The major proposals have already been made public, including the creation of a trust to oversee the city’s cultural facilities and controversial plans to slash £4m from the education department’s budget.
The idea of shuttling pupils around schools for lessons under a “city campus” scheme has already come under fire and another major money-saver, the removal of promoted posts in schools, has been adjusted after meeting widespread opposition.
But the devil is in the detail and, though the city’s council tax is expected to be frozen for the fifth year in a row, parents will be asked to pay more for full-time pre-school nursery education and music tuition, couples will have to factor in the cost of more expensive wedding venues and the bereaved will be charged more to bury their dead.