PLANS to charge for bulk uplifts to help meet a budget shortfall are to be put to councillors.

A range of options to meet a

£50 million spending gap will be presented today to councillors by the City Treasurer Allan Gow.

Budget plans that will affect all departments have been drawn up by the SNP administration.

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Priorities including free school meals and holiday hunger projects will be protected, and extra cash for Glasgow’s effort to tackle the climate emergency will be made available.

Mr Gow needs support from another party to get the budget through at the council this afternoon. The Greens are demanding a £10m climate emergency fund for their support.

The council needs to meet the spending gap through cuts to services and raising extra income, unless the Scottish Government provides more money in the local government settlement as new Finance Secretary Kate Forbes progresses her Budget through Holyrood.

It is expected that council tax will increase by between 4.5% and the maximum allowed 4.84%.

The bulk uplift is one area where cash would be raised for a service that has until now been free. Glasgow said it is one of only two councils not to charge for bulk uplifts.

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Glasgow Times:

The proposals are expected to include a charge of around £15 for five items.

There are other ways to get items such as furniture collected for free though Zero Waste Scotland.

Enforcement measures will need to be put in place to deal with any increase in fly-tipping as a result.

Free school meals for P1 to P3 will be maintained and it is understood the council would like to expand the provision but current finances do not allow this.

Last year £1.4m was spent on holiday hunger, providing 20,000 meals, which will be continued after April.

There are plans for the city’s golf courses that could see five of the six closed unless ownership can be transferred.

It is understood that the Knightswood nine-hole course would be retained and Glasgow Life asked to explore “alternative solutions” for the others.

If no one was willing to take over ownership then they would be used for other green space leisure, park or allotments, or re-wilding for community use.

The council said the number of rounds played on the courses dropped to 23,000 last year.

Knightswood was the busiest with 9000 rounds and Ruchill the lowest with just 322 rounds.

The total cost of maintaining the six golf courses is £1m, but only around £150,000 was received in fees.

Glasgow Times:

There are no plans in the SNP administration’s proposals to close or change hours at community centres in Ashgill, Milton and Maryhill that feared for their future.

Nor are there any proposals to close or make changes to the Gallery of Modern Art that were included in an options paper last month.

Council leader Susan Aitken said: “Our budget proposals protect and, wherever possible, invest in the city’s priorities. We’re focusing on early intervention and empowering communities.

“We’re also protecting education and care as much as we can – and continuing funding for our holiday hunger programme and free school meals.

“We’re proposing some extra funding in a Climate Action Fund; for environmental improvements, and to get Glasgow’s communities ready to take more control over local spending.”