With the announcemnet this morning that Councillor Ronnie Nicholson has quit the Labour group today Tuesday, February the 26th 2019, after not being able to support proposed cuts in the local council budget, Leader of the Labour Group Elaine Murray has issued a statement.
Elaine Murray Said “I deeply regret the resignation of Councillor Ronnie Nicholson from Dumfries and Galloway Labour Group. He has served the Council and the Labour Party with great dedication for many years and his experience will be greatly missed.
“Dumfries and Galloway Council has already been forced to make £96m of cuts since austerity began in 2010/11. This year, we faced a further funding gap of over £16m, and the coalition administration has had to make some extremely hard choices in order to produce a fiscally competent budget, choices we have made with heavy hearts.
“Any reduction in posts within the Council will be made through Early Retirement and Voluntary Severance, redeployment and the elimination of vacancies. We will continue to adhere to our policy of no compulsory redundancies.”
The administration budget will be published at 5pm this evening
