IT seems that we used to have more of everything in Glasgow.

More schools, hospitals, community centres, community workers, police stations, train stations.

The only thing there seems to more of are things that we don’t really need, nice as some of them are, like US corporation owned coffee shops.

Every year for the last decade and beyond there are cuts to council budgets which means cuts to services.

So that means fewer of those things listed above, the services not the coffee shops.

And next week the City Treasurer, Allan Gow, will have to put forward a council budget, one that will have £50m to spend less than last year.

Already we have seen some of the options/suggestions, things that could happen but are not definite, which would deliver savings towards that £50million figure.

Say it quick enough and it doesn’t seem a huge number.

It is. It is enormous. Enormous because it is on top of hundreds of millions that have already been taken out of budgets over the years.

Whatever Mr Gow comes up with, whatever suggestions from the council officers in each department he decides can be approved, it will be unpopular.

That is the nature of the job. He is like the Chancellor, except he can’t even knock a penny off a pint of beer for a cheap headline in the vain hope that the working classes will cheer. Spoiler alert to the new chancellor, we care more about other things than beer.

No, and what limited tools for raising revenue he has are unpopular.

He has a few choices.

He can increase charges and fees for services like leisure centres, parking, care charges and anything else you need to pay the council for.

He can increase council tax but only by 3%, which he probably will, which doesn’t really make any significant dent in the £50m he needs to save.

He can go to the Scottish Government, with the other council leaders, and state the case for more money for local government.

Money for things the council has discretion on which to spend it, as so much of what the Scottish Government gives to the council has to be spent on priorities decided by Government ministers in Edinburgh.

Or he can go to the departments in the council and say, you need to cut this much from your budgets.

The answer is probably a mix of all three. But for years it has been heavily weighted towards increasing fees and cutting services, with the latter bearing the brunt.

There has not been enough success from asking the Scottish Government for more money.

Every year we hear a Finance Secretary telling us that local government is getting a fair deal and has more money to spend, the message is the same it’s just the voice that changes.

Maybe on paper by moving figures around various columns it can be made to look the case.

But it doesn’t change the fact that, this year, Glasgow City Council has to make £50million worth of cuts on top of year after year of cuts.

All over the city there are sites where once stood a primary school or a secondary school that didn’t involve a bus to get there.

There is wasteland where people under thirty aren’t old enough to remember what once stood there.

When Mr Gow stands up next week to put forward his budget, other parties will put forward theirs and then there will be a vote.

By the time the decisions are taken it will be too late for communities to organise and state their case for why their library should stay open or community centre should be given investment not closure.

In the Glasgow Times again this year we have reported on some of the options being discussed.

It included closing golf courses, museums libraries and community centre. It wasn’t exhaustive it wasn’t every suggestion.

Since becoming Treasurer Mr Gow has been open about the challenges he faces.

But what is missing is communities being given advance notice of what could be coming their way. And whatever representations are being made to the Scottish Government are not enough because the cuts continue.

People should have enough time to make representations, like campaigners from Whitehill and Drumchapel pools did last year.

People want local services, and are prepared to fight for them. They should be given the opportunity and our councillors of every party should be doing the same.