Consultation responses to be scrutinised

A series of Policy Development and Scrutiny Panels (PDSPs) will take place in the week of 2 February, to allow elected members to discuss the feedback provided by local residents.

The Your Council, Your Say consultation took place in late Autumn 2025 and sought feedback on range of budget options available to the council.  The council is legally required to set a balanced budget, so will need to reduce costs to bridge the funding gap caused by rising costs of providing council services combined with insufficient levels of funding.

Over 10,000 responses and 28,430 comments were received, which is the highest ever number of responses ever for a budget consultation.

The PDSPs are not decision-making bodies, but will provide elected members with the chance to consider consultation responses and receive an update on the council's projected budget gap and a number of potential saving options as identified by council officers, ahead of a meeting of all councillors to set the council's budget later in February.

Papers from all the PDSPs are now published and available at Council Information System (CoIns) (opens new window)

All meetings take place in Council Chambers at West Lothian Civic Centre, which as a public viewing gallery for anyone who wants to watch the meetings. All meetings will also be broadcast online at Live Broadcast - West Lothian Council meetings

Now that the Scottish Government's Local Government Settlement has been set out, and taking account of updated planning assumptions, the council's estimated budget gap for 2026/27 and 2027/28 has increased significantly to £15.4 million. 

Legally councils must balance their budget which means the council needs to agree measures by the end of February to address this gap over the next two years.

Over 80% of the council's budget comes from Scottish Government Grant Funding whilst Council Tax makes up around 19% of a council's budget.