Increase Council Tax

    The Scottish Government announced plans on 17 October 2023 to freeze council tax for 2024/25.  To do this the Scottish Government increases council budgets by a fixed percentage.  In previous years this increase has been comparable to a council tax raise of 3%. The Council has not been notified of the level of increase that the Scottish Government intends to apply.

    Introduce charges for EV Charging

    The Council approved a review of EV Charging across East Ayrshire on 22 March 2023 with charges due to come into force early in 2024.  A copy of the report, including all the recommendations that were approved is available on our website.  We are working with North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire Councils to ensure tariffs are applied consistently across Ayrshire. A further report detailing proposed tariffs will be presented to the Council’s Cabinet prior to implementation.  

    Fill empty shops

    The majority of buildings available for retail businesses are owned and managed by private companies or individuals.  The council offers a range of support to local businesses and landlords through our Business Support Team.  When it comes to empty buildings owned by private companies or individuals we can only get involved directly if the building itself is neglected and becomes dangerous.

    Stop all actions related Climate Change

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations organisation that includes 195 member countries and thousands of independent scientific experts, published a Synthesis Report in March 2023. It concluded that human activities, principally through greenhouse gas emissions, have unequivocally caused global warming. The main drivers of these emissions are energy use, land use, and the consumption and production of goods. We respond locally to these challenges through our Change Strategy.  You can get more information on our website

    Reduce the number of household bins

    It is really expensive to send household waste to landfill.  The Council is charged for every tonne of waste we send to landfill.  Not only is recycling better for the environment, but reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill saves money.

    Open more Council offices to the public

    As our communities and residents continue to expect, and use, digital solutions to engage with us, the need for in person office visits has reduced significantly over recent years. We have worked extensively to reflect this change in demand by digitising services, moving processes to our online customer service platform and redesigning our telephone network to provide a seamless, flexible solution for our communities and residents. We are pleased with the results so far:

    • increasing our number of online customer accounts from 3,000 accounts pre-pandemic to over 51,000 online accounts.
    • providing over 60 self-service applications online. 
    • receiving 120,000 visits each month to our website with 43% of customer contact managed through our online self-service platform.
    • increasing our online transactions from 1,500 monthly pre–pandemic to over 25,000 monthly, reducing paper handling, improving processing times and saving money.


    Accept cash at offices

    In 2018, we stopped taking cash and moved to more efficient payment methods including direct debit, online transactions and card payments. We did this because face-to-face cash transactions are more expensive to process and deliver, and cost the Council considerably more than electronic transactions.

    Tackle youth unemployment

    We are committed to developing the talents and career prospects of our young people and continue to expand activities and resources in line with the Scottish Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee scheme.

    We have used additional funding to support our most disengaged young people with tailored mentoring to help them move towards employment, and set up 40 supported apprenticeships with East Ayrshire Council, the Health and Social Care Partnership and a range of third sector and private organisations.

    Reduce the number of councils in Scotland

    This isn’t something that we can do as the structure of local government in Scotland is enshrined in law and controlled by the Scottish Government.