And finally…Highland Council asks public to balance its budget with online simulator

Highland Council has challenged the public to try and solve its budget gap of £17-18 million using an accessible online budget simulator.

The local authority’s budget leader Bill Fernie said something has to be done to resolve the dilemma of rising costs and a reduction in funding from the Scottish government.

The simulator includes options in finding savings by reducing spending on schools and public toilets.

Available until 5 February, the council said it hoped it would generate feedback from people living in the Highlands on the running of council services.

Mr Fernie said: “We have done our best to look at how we can make savings whilst causing the least impact on essential services and jobs.

“We have identified a range of savings to reduce this gap and before we put our full proposals to council, we would like to understand what is really important to people in the Highlands.”

He added: “The council cannot spend more than it has and there are some areas of the budget that have fixed costs and we cannot cut. The simulator cannot include the entire budget for this reason, but challenges residents to attempt the difficult task of cutting £14m from the budget.”