A PUBLIC consultation on West Dunbartonshire Council’s proposed £17m budget cuts has come under fire for failing to provide any ‘meaningful discussion’. Almost 200 people — including residents from Dumbarton and the Vale, community groups, and councillors — attended the West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) consultation at Clydebank Town Hall last Tuesday evening.

However, the atmosphere quickly turned sour when attendees protested against the use of a digital polling system which closely mirrors an online survey already in place. The yes or no vote on the 29 budget options was hurried through leaving little time in the agenda for a question and answer session.

Dumbarton councillor George Black, who was present at the meeting, said: “I thought the consultation was a PR disaster for the administration given the fact that they spend over £300,000 a year on PR – a good potential saving there. The people were not fooled and the flaws in the strategy were exposed mercilessly.

“People were asked to vote yes or no on issues which required explanation and protested this fact to no avail.

“The fatal flaw in a democratic society was the fact that folk had the opportunity to vote twice, online and again at the meeting. The best principles (one man one vote) were ridden over roughshod.” He added: “The worst part of all of this is the fact that no notice will be taken of the result of this consultation and these councillors will cut carve and chop with Thatcher-like enthusiasm.” Kilpatrick councillor Jim Finn told the Reporter the meeting was ‘a bit of a shambles’. He added: “There were too many people asking questions that were not getting answers. The reaction tonight did show that people aren’t happy about the potential cuts — only four of the 28 options actually went through.

“The woman at the start was giving it pelters, saying ‘Why should we even carry out the cuts?’, but to not set a budget is illegal and if we didn’t, we’d have the Scottish Government here — and they have no qualms or loyalties to the people of West Dunbartonshire. Maybe people don’t think about that.” A spokeswoman for WDC defended the format of the meeting, claiming due to the volume of people in attendance the best way to capture everyone’s views was electronically.

She said: “The public meeting on the proposed budget savings was a good opportunity for residents to express their views and ask questions of officers. Given the large number of people present it was felt the best way to capture all their views was by using electronic voting. This mirrored the format used successfully at the budget meeting in January 2014.

“In addition, feedback and suggestion sheets were distributed at the event to allow people to make additional comments and put forward alternative options. Questions were also invited from each table in the hall and all were answered.

“The feedback provided at the event will help inform decision making by the elected members – some of whom were in attendance on the evening.

“A summary of the final responses on the night will be presented along with the findings of the online survey next week.”