THE actual impact of this year’s budget cuts imposed by the SNP administration at Glasgow City Council is beginning to become clear.

There are real fears that around 300 jobs will be lost across all council services via non-filling of posts and redeployment.

The effect will be devastating for the delivery of services.

The first service in the SNP’s sights is Glasgow’s Museums and Collections section, run by Glasgow Life, where almost a third of posts are under threat in an attempt to save £1.5million.

The jobs involved include curators, conservators, outreach assistants, digital photographers and technicians.

The Unison trade union, which represents these workers, has warned of the negative effects of planned cuts.

For example, the museum conservation department is to be reduced by 40%.

This is the team which worked throughout lockdown caring for Glasgow’s internationally renowned museum collections and delivered the refurbished Burrell Collection on time.

Public programmes will be considerably reduced as a result.

Again, the planned cuts to Glasgow Museums and the Mitchell Library are centred on staff who care for the collections, including the People’s Palace and St Mungo Museum.

The cuts threaten the preservation of the city’s collection, the potential for exhibitions and the international reputation of Scotland’s major city.

Another area under threat from this ill-thought-out SNP strategy is the Open Museum – the city’s community outreach service.

It will cease to be an autonomous team with its own identity, freedom and ability to work in Glasgow’s communities with people who don’t or can’t visit museums.

It puts at risk projects which are shaped by local people who help create exhibitions about art, mental health and local and global history.

The result of the approach taken by the current minority SNP administration is to cut jobs and local services and to put in jeopardy Glasgow’s hard-won reputation as a marvellous centre of culture to visit and enjoy.

In other words, their decisions may very well threaten Glasgow’s tourist appeal and reputation for cultural excellence and result in damage to a vital component of the area’s economic life.

As a Labour councillor, I am very concerned about the consequences of the SNP administration’s budget cuts as they are rolled out across council services during this financial year.

As a member of Glasgow’s Labour group, I joined with my colleagues in refusing to participate in this year’s budget meeting, as we knew the financial settlement from the SNP at Holyrood was wholly unacceptable.

Frankly, this year’s settlement was only the latest in a wretched catalogue of settlements which has seen cuts of £400m imposed on the area’s residents and workforce since 2013.

Glasgow’s museums, indeed all of Glasgow’s services, need more investment, not less.

In the coming months, Labour councillors will work with trade unions and the local communities we represent to do all in our power to argue for a reversal of these SNP cuts.