COUNCIL officers in South Ayrshire have shared details of ambitious plans to transform a range of services as the authority aims to bridge a near-£30m budget gap.

Earlier this year, Audit Scotland reported that the local authority has a greater strategic focus on improving the pace of change.

However, it also stated that the underlying cost to deliver services is not sustainable. In the financial years 2025/26 and 2026/27, council chiefs will need to make savings of £29 million to balance the budget.

A council spokesperson said: "Transforming the way we deliver services is essential to meet future needs, ensure the council’s sustainability and ultimately bridge this budget gap. 

"To help us realise these savings and preserve service delivery, we’ve identified a range of transformation proposals which are now in development.

"Key priority areas for our transformation programme include our workforce; our technology; our assets and our delivery model.

"We want our processes and activities to be more effective and efficient. We also need to seek opportunities to enhance our offering of services that generate income, as well as reviewing or rationalising those that don’t provide best value for the public pound. 

"In year one of the programme this includes exploring the possibility of branching out into private property maintenance and factoring and reviewing our community estate.

"We’ll also look at improving and expanding our digital offering. This will enhance the customer experience, making our digital services more user friendly and convenient.

"Realising our proposals and implementing the projects will involve work with our employees, communities, partners, stakeholders and trade unions."

Information about ‘Shaping Our Future Council’ projects is available here.