‘TRICKLED-down austerity’ has been blamed for cutbacks to council services such as grounds maintenance.

But Peebles community leaders have vowed not to sit back and moan – and instead will do everything possible to ensure the town continues to blossom.

Community council chairman Lawrie Hayworth told last week’s meeting the cuts to ground maintenance were not the decision he would have made in solving the local government financial crisis. He told council officers he recognised the constraints of Scottish Borders Council, but called for further discussion on a service-level agreement between the council and community volunteers, who he stressed, would need to be protected under public liability insurance.

As previously reported in the Peeblesshire News, the cuts have outraged local communities, particularly the state of cemeteries.

Fears are also growing that the council will close public toilets, as they are under no statutory obligation to provide these facilities.

SBC’s neighbourhood operations manager, Jason Hedley, told the meeting: “As part of the budget setting process, proposals to change the way the council traditionally maintained its green spaces were tabled and accepted. So savings in the region of £345,000 are associated with the service change.

“We want to try and keep our active green spaces where people take sport, leisure and recreation without any material change, but we want to change the less active more amenity side, roadside verges and perhaps some residential areas to a 20 working day cycle.”

Mr Hedley said the decision to scale back on services was not taken lightly and followed a trial of 50 sites last year, adding: “We also had to change some of the equipment we were using because it wouldn’t cope with the longer grass.”

Areas that previously had bedding plants may now be replaced with perennial shrubs, or even grassed over.

The community council is keen to talk to Peebles in Bloom and other voluntary groups to find a way to keep the colourful displays.

Mr Hedley said that putting in bedding plants and then taking them out in October is not an environmentally sound approach.

“For instance, the Quadrangle outside. If it’s not annual bedding plants, can it be perennial? Would we be better to turf these places over?

“We are having discussions with Border towns in bloom. We need to have that discussion now during the summer in what is the planting season for next year. As part of that agreement it could mean communities taking over and playing their part.”

Community councillor Les Turnbull felt the council was retreating in dealing with green spaces and public toilets.

Mr Hedley replied: “The financial position the council finds itself in, and the varied options it has to balance its books, is very much focused on these kinds of discretionary service areas. There is a lot which is protected by legislation and government policy. So the range of options that the council has got to try and deal with its financial challenges are very limited. We have got a tough job on our hands and we are asking people to work with us.”

Director of assets and infrastructure for Scottish Borders Council, Martin Joyce explained that over the next five years the council will have to make savings in the region of £27 million.

He added: “When you have something like public toilets which is a non-statutory service, the council is under no obligation at all to provide that. It does cost the council a significant amount of money per annum.

“These are areas inevitably and unfortunately that we have to try and target, because there are areas in education and social care that are protected from those cuts and so the money has to come from other services.

“Although we’re having to make these cuts we’re really trying to place a new focus and emphasis on how we manage our green space around bio-diversity and health and safety issues.”

Mr Hayworth said: “Toilets might not be statutory, but they are essential to the people of Peebles and our visitors. I’m not shooting the messenger, but I feel this is a softening up process for the management of expectations, and to make sure that those expectations are driven down. It’s not good news at all. We value our town, we have to take on board to a degree that the services are not going to be delivered in the same way as they have been historically, therefore if we want it, how do we make it happen?

“There’s no point in saying ‘it’s a bloody disgrace’. It’s not going to solve the problem. There may be other ways of the community achieving what it wants.”

Mr Hayworth said he didn’t want public liability insurance to be the stumbling block for voluntary groups undertaking work in Peebles.

Council officials will have a meeting with members of Peebles in Bloom at the end of this month to discuss the way forward, and intimated that cuts to the services have produced a saving of £45,000 which was spent on bedding plants. The council plans to retain £15,000 of that money to help support communities who want to roll up their sleeves and take on the job of maintaining floral displays and amenity areas.