COUNCIL bosses could cut 45 jobs in a bid to save millions from budgets as the financial picture continues to worsen for the local authority.

Tomorrow’s meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) will hear so-called management adjustments have been identified by departments as the start of budget season kicks off.

A draft funding figure from the Scottish Government won’t be available until December to know how much slashing council spending will need.

But bosses have made a 10-year projection that by 2028/29, they’re likely needing to find more than £54million in savings.

The worst case projection would see a need for a staggering £97m in cuts.

With a total budget of £214m, management adjustments will save WDC £2.3m but they’ll need to cut another £2m to balance the books.

The figures all assume council tax will continue to rise by 3 per cent each year going forward.

West Dunbartonshire is facing issues ranging from depopulation and ageing residents to the unknown impact of Brexit in 2019.

Management adjustments listed in this week’s council papers include restructuring, reduction and rationalisation across multiple departments.

Some of the savings are small, such as ending providing tea, coffee and milk to councillors, saving just £2,000.

More than £300,000 would be saved on “resources service restructure”, cutting 18 full-time jobs.

Some work would be managed in-house instead of employing outside contractors, such as asbestos surveys or legionella risk assessments.

Another £10,000 would be cut by ending funding for the Great Scottish Swim.

The budget for internships would be reduced by £15,000 and the homelessness service would be “redesigned” to save £25k.

The largest cut is for £433,000 but requires no jobs lost. Council papers described it as, “increased capitalisation of staff costs across asset management following a review of time spent to manage the significant capital investment” without explanation, in English, of what that means.

The long-term financial strategy, signed off by chief executive Joyce White and council leader Jonathan McColl, states: “Longer-term projections have been made to 2028/29 and highlight, based on a range of assumptions, a range of funding gaps to 2028/29 between £35.626m and £96.944m, based on a best and worst case scenario – with the likely position being somewhere in between, currently valued at £54.270m.”