NORTH Ayrshire’s Labour administration say it refuses to just accept cuts of £9.2 million from the council’s revenue budget.

Councillor Cullinane has described it as “deeply arrogant” for Finance Secretary Derek Mackay to try and bully Councils into accepting an “offer of cuts” before negotiations have taken place, warning that the impact of a £9.2 million cut will be severe for public services and jobs.

The Labour group says the SNP Government has received an extra £418 million in their 2017/18 from the UK government, but they are determined to cut £327 million from public services - which North Ayrshire this would mean an extra £9.2 million cut on top of last year’s £10 million cut.

However the SNP say that this has fully compensated for in increases to health and social care and the fund to narrow the attainment gap in education.

North Ayrshire Council Leader Joe Cullinane has written to the Finance Secretary saying he will neither “accept nor reject” any ‘offer’ of cuts before the Scottish Parliament, and North Ayrshire Council, has been able to exercise its democratic mandate to scrutinise and set its budget.

However, they now have a minority administration which means that they will need to negotiate an agreement with at least one opposition party to pass their budget.

Councillor Cullinane said: “I have been clear that I will stand up for the people of North Ayrshire and fight for a fair funding deal on their behalf and that is exactly what I am doing.

“It is deeply arrogant for Derek Mackay to attempt to bully Councils into accepting his ‘offer’, which involves deep cuts to our funding, before MSPs have been able to scrutinise his draft budget and set their own.

“It is about time that Mr Mackay and the SNP realised that the bully boy tactics that they employed when they held a Parliamentary majority will no longer work now that they are a minority administration. Every opposition party in the Parliament has stated that they won’t vote for the draft budget.

“Mr Mackay’s demand that councils accept his ‘offer’ before these negotiations have taken place is a political ploy to try and force through his cuts.

“I will not accept any ‘offer’ which involves cuts to public services and jobs in North Ayrshire before the Scottish Parliament has exercised its democratic mandate to set its own budget.”

SNP Finance spokesman Councillor Alan Hill said: "It's alarming that Labour don't appear to have done their homework on this.

"The £9 million pound cut in the core budget Mr Cullinane refers to has been fully compensated for in increases to health and social care and the fund to narrow the attainment gap in education.

"They have used their dominant position on COSLA to cause North Ayrshire a major problem. They have thrown out the tried and tested formula that allocates council funding according to need. That could result in a £5 million hit to the budget.

"The Labour members on council need to spend less time sniping at others and more time getting to grips with managing council finances".