Under proposals by the children and families department, commuters who use childcare in the Edinburgh area would no longer have their free nursery education places paid for by the city council. Education councillors agreed that they would now bill surrounding councils for non-residents'
entitlement, in an attempt to counter an expected 3.6m deficit for 2006/07.
A council spokesman said, 'We're in the process of working out how many families are affected and will be billing their councils accordingly.'
According to budget reports, commuting to childcare has increased by 40 per cent since 2003. The expected savings from billing other councils are Pounds 500,000. The three local authorities chiefly affected will be East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian.
The plans are being disputed by East Lothian Council. A spokesman said, 'We are in contact with the City of Edinburgh Council over their intention to bill neighbouring councils for nursery places. We are also in contact with the Scottish Executive, since our view is that the City of Edinburgh Council is acting wrongly.'
A Scottish Executive spokesperson said, 'We have been contacted by two local authorities on this issue. We are looking into the matter and will provide further advice in due course. The Executive is currently revising its guidance to authorities on the delivery of pre-school education and the issue of cross-border placements will be looked at again, as part of that process.'
In Glasgow, the city council currently operates a reciprocal arrangement of cross-border provision with neighbouring authorities.
* Edinburgh City Council has revealed plans to delay January payments of the nursery education grant to private nurseries until late February.
Nursery managers are urging parents to write to the council and complain.
Councillor Andrew Burns, executive member for children and families, said, 'This January grant was based on the estimated number of children at nursery. These estimated numbers were often inaccurate and resulted in under-payments and mainly over-payments to private nurseries. It was also agreed that the new system would be implemented on a trial basis and the impact, both positive and negative, monitored, with the system reviewed and amended accordingly.'