Argyll and Bute Council have just announced 140 devastating service cuts choices of between £21.7 - £26 million over the next 5 years. This will impact on every woman, man and child in our area, especially our most vulnerable.

The rank hypocrisy and sheer arrogance shown by our Council Administration towards the people of Argyll and Bute is startling.

This is clearly demonstrated by the recommendation of the Policy & Resources Committee that will meet in the Council Chambers in Lochgilphead at 10.30am on Thursday 8th Oct.

At this meeting, on the one hand our Councillors will rubber stamp 140 tough bottom end service cuts choices, whilst on the other they will almost certainly vote to recruit two social media officers. The main task of these officers will be to mitigate the fall out and spin the cuts choices at a cost of £76K per annum. We, the people of Argyll and Bute think that this is an absolute disgrace and insult to us all.

As an example, choice number 26 is to remove the central budget for children with additional support needs, which will save our Council 80K, but will have a huge, detrimental impact on all our pupils. If the Digital Communication Officers were not appointed then this valuable sevice would not need to be cut.

We the undersigned urge the 16 Councillors in attendance at this meeting to categorically reject this ridiculous public relations exercise and make the first saving to budget by axing these jobs.