An extra £1/2 million will be spent on Angus roads this year after councillors agreed to divert a grant windfall towards more repairs.
And the cash has been welcomed by an SNP councillor who labelled a council tax freeze incentive a Holyrood budget “bribe”.
In February, Kenny Braes shocked colleagues when he described the Scottish Government’s offer of £2.8m to keep the council tax rate static as “outrageous”.
An additional £62m was announced in March by then deputy First Minister Shona Robison for Scotland’s councils who agreed the freeze.
The Angus share of that pot is £1.29m.
Councillors have now agreed £500,000 of it will be invested in tackling the county’s crumbling roads.
It is on top of £1m the SNP administration committed to repairs when the budget was set.
And Montrose councillor Mr Braes claimed it means Angus is spending more than ever before on roads.
He told the area’s policy committee: “The people of Angus are constantly at me about the state of the roads.
“We’re doing all we can.
“Some might say it’s a drop in the ocean, but I think it’s a lot more than that.
“We’ve never spent more on our roads than we are now.”
Brechin councillor Chris Beattie said: “It’s no surprise our roads have taken a real battering over the winter.
“It’s just good to see that £500,000 going into roads on top of the £1m permanent increase to our capital budget for roads.
Council staff pay deal undecided
Finance director Ian Lorimer plans to keep the remaining £0.9m for unexpected ‘risks’.
Those could include a pay deal for council staff.
Mr Lorimer said: “A corporate provision of £5.8 million, based on a 3% increase, was made in the provisional budget.
“At the time of writing no pay deals have been concluded so this remains an area of risk and uncertainty.”
And he warned there could be cuts if any pay deal is higher than budgeted for.
“Assuming no further additional funding support for this is provided by the Scottish Government, it will be necessary to identify compensating savings elsewhere in the council’s budget.”
The same revenue meeting also heard the council has not made a decision on whether to replace its £127,000-a-year depute chief executive.
Mark Armstrong is retiring at the end of July.
Council chief executive Kathryn Lindsay said any decision on re-filling the post was still under consideration.
The authority’s senior leadership team salaries total more than £1m per year.
“We are however mindful of the wider budgetary situation for the council,” she added.
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