COMMUNITIES are facing an anxious wait over facilities as Glasgow City Council has to find more than £40m in cuts.

City Treasurer Allan Gow will present his budget to councillors next week with tough spending decisions looming.

Having already ruled out closing swimming pools in Drumchapel and Whitehill in Dennistoun other facilities are still under threat.

In the last four years the council has faced cuts totalling more than £200m and unions say that services can’t take any more.

READ MORE: Leaked document shows potential Glasgow City Council budget cuts for 2019

Mr Gow has to get agreement from at least one other party in the City Chambers to get a budget passed so input is needed from wither the Greens, Conservatives or Labour.

The spending gap announced by the council is £41m but the actual figure is likely to be higher than that as some work will already have been done and the £41m is what is still to be found.

The Scottish Government Finance Secretary, Derek Mackay, said he is giving more money this year to every council in Scotland but other costs including inflation, wages and this year the costs of funding the £500m equal pay settlement need to be factored in.

In means the council is once again facing a significant shortfall in its income.

Golf courses across the city could be axed which would save more than £1m, while other local facilities could be closed.

Community centres and libraries could be closed or merged to find savings.

READ MORE: 10 possible cuts revealed in leaked Glasgow City Council 2019 budget document

Despite having had meetings with senior councillors, union representatives say they are still in the dark over what plans are being developed.

Brian Smith Unison Glasgow branch convenor, said: “At this stage it is ridiculous that trade unions don’t know the impact and the citizens of Glasgow don’t know, so they can’t lobby councillors on the plans.”

Mr Smith said he would like to see greater effort from the council to lobby the Scottish Government for more cash

He added: “We understand the money is not there in the council budget, but Glasgow is disadvantaged and has high levels of poverty. How hard is the administration fighting for more money. The Scottish Government have the power to raise income and haven’t used it their income tax powers in the way we would like it to.

“We are ten years into this cuts programme. We’ve been cut, reformed and stripped to the bone. People only need to look around them in their communities to se this can’t go on any longer.”

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The £41m this year comes on top of £20m last year, £53m the year before and which was preceded by cuts of £83m and £29m.

Going back further the council budget cuts are around £500m over a decade.

Labour said it will finalise its opposition proposals early next week.

Group leader Frank McAveety said: “We will present a budget proposal that would protect frontline services and demand fairer funding for councils generally.

He said that proposals to cut Glasgow Life facilities and services was causing “unnecessary fear and alarm” in communities and labour wants them taken off the table.

He added: “The problem is the council’s core budget is declining. We need serious discussions about how to fund local government services. The sticking plaster may stop some of the bleeding but it is not a solution.”

The council said the city’s net spending each year is typically around £1.5bn, funded from government grants, service income and charges and Council Tax.

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Council officers have been looking at how to balance the city’s spending plans with its anticipated income and the anticipated gap reported to each of the political party groups.

A Council spokesman said the gap reflects any change in core funding, but the bigger part of the figure can often come down to inflationary pressures and other unavoidable costs.

He said: “In the year ahead, that will include the initial costs of settling equal pay claims.

“In subsequent years, these costs will have been mainstreamed into the budget and, although they will still have to be met, won’t be visible in any gap.

“As with household budgets, inflation has an impact on a range of spending but perhaps the most obvious in the current year will be wage costs.

“While pay rises have been held below inflation for the best part of the last decade, deals worth more than 3% per year have been offered for each of the years 2018/19-2020/21.

“It is not unusual for the budget gap to decrease in size as we approach budget day – due to technical adjustments made by officers or political decisions taken at a national level.

“For example, Glasgow’s most recent financial forecast placed the gap at £41m, down around £10m as a result of changes to the local government settlement in the Scottish budget. “