ENVIRONMENT wardens, who oversee the removal of abandoned vehicles and fly-tipped rubbish, could be scrapped in Argyll and Bute.
A savings option suggesting that the five posts could be removed to save the area’s council £178,000 in 2026/27, and £214,000 in the next two years, has been kept on the table.
A report has also suggested that parking enforcement staff could become more involved in environmental enforcement should the savings option, which was first published in November, be agreed.
A suggestion has also been made that the authority’s winter maintenance budget could be cut by 10 per cent as a further savings option.
The details feature in a report which will go before the council’s policy and resources committee on Thursday, February 19. The council will set its budget on Wednesday, February 25.
The document said: “The proposal involves the removal of the amenity service environmental wardens.
“This will require the downscaling or stopping of our environmental enforcement activity, or the reconfiguration of enforcement activity within roads and infrastructure services, e.g parking enforcement staff becoming more involved in environmental enforcement, transfer of some enforcement activity to regulatory services.
“This will involve the removal of five posts…providing a saving of £178,000 in 2026/27 (part year), rising to £214,000 from 2027/28 (full year).
“The activities currently carried out by the wardens are removal of abandoned vehicles, fly-tipping investigation and enforcement, commercial waste enforcement, dog fouling enforcement and education, LEAMS (local environmental audit and management system) inspections, management of the assisted pull out service, pest control [and] liaison with traveller encampments.”
Meanwhile, in relation to the winter maintenance budget, it added: “The budget for winter maintenance for 2025/26 is £2.662m. This proposal would involve a reduction in winter maintenance by 10%, delivering a saving of £0.270m.
“This will bring us closer to our comparator rural councils, and also mitigate against any reduction in the capital budget for road resurfacing.
“A report went to [the environment, development and infrastructure committee] on September 11 and the committee endorsed that a further review of the winter maintenance policy is undertaken prior to the 2026/27 winter maintenance season.
“[This] includes a review of the total percentage of the road network that is currently treated and, recognising this is 10 per cent higher than the average for the rural group authorities, whether efficiencies on this can be achieved. With a report to committee during early summer 2026.
“Reduction in staffing cannot be confirmed at this stage until review is carried out. The saving at this stage represents a target saving that will be further refined as part of the review to be reported during 2026.”
A previously-published option to reduce the council’s street sweeping budget by 20 per cent has also resurfaced after first emerging in November.
It would involve the removal of five full-time equivalent posts.
