Falkirk Council: £4.5m cash bonus but concern there may be strings attached

The news came less than 24 hours before the council set its budget. As a result members voted to delay any decisions on the council’s capital programme.

In 2021, the council received £9 million more than anticipated for work on the scheme due to a “timing issue”, according to the report.

Half of that has already been recovered by the Scottish Government but Falkirk Council heard just hours before the annual budget meeting that the remaining £4.5 million will not need to be returned.

Council officers, however, say they would like more clarity on whether there are any conditions to how the money should be spent, for example on flooding work.

As the information was so last-minute, Independent councillor Laura Murtagh proposed that any decisions on capital spending be delayed until they had more clarity.

“I’m a bit concerned that I don’t have all the information from all these late agendas to be able to make fully informed decisions,” she said.

While the council has a legal obligation to set its council tax by March 9, there is no such need for the capital budget to be approved.

The leader of the council, Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn, said it would be better to press ahead and a further report could come to council with more details of the extra funding.

With the voting split down the middle, Provost Robert Bissett used his casting vote to delay any decisions.

Design work for the flood protection scheme is now complete and it has gone to the notification stage but funding is still not in place.

Costs for what will be the biggest scheme in Scotland could soar to more than £600 million, according to the most recent estimates.