A dangerous precedent could be set if it was agreed to split the local authority’s small-schemes budget equally
between Eildon area wards.
So said Scottish Borders Council leader David Parker (Leaderdale and Melrose, Ind) at Thursday’s session of the full local authority.
It was at the last Eildon area forum, when Mr Parker had to leave early, that the remaining members voted to divide the budget equally between the three Eildon wards until December.
If, in December, there was any funds left, then it would be pooled together.
But because no member from the Leaderdale and Melrose ward was present, it meant the decision had to come before the full council.
The issue of splitting the budget between wards seems to have been triggered by a request for £9,000 for a replacement bus shelter in Tweedbank, part of the Leaderdale and Melrose ward.
On Thursday, the full council agreed the issue should come before a special meeting of Eildon area committee members this month.
Mr Parker told The Southern the current arrangements had worked fine for the last 10 years. “This does mean that some years a particular ward may attract a higher proportion of the funding in the budget than other wards, but members have approved that, and sometimes there is greater work needing to be done in one ward in a particular year, than in another.”
Mr Parker is concerned that if such a split scheme was introduced, other budgets distributed by the area committee, such as the community council grants scheme, may go the same way.
“And if that were the case, it could mean sometimes that groups are disadvantaged. If you were to split the community support grant scheme in the same way that is being suggested, by ward, then a number of groups in Selkirk and Newtown would have been denied funding.”
As for the bus shelter in Tweedbank’s Neidpath Court – the busiest one in the village – the scheme was deferred for further discussion at this month’s Eildon area forum.