DESPITE belts being tightened at Scottish Borders Council, local authority chiefs are set to splash the cash when it comes to education.

The ruling administration at Newtown St Boswells unveiled its spending plans for 2019/20.

And taking centre stage was a programme of investment in the region's schools.

From April it is proposed to supply every pupil, from primary six up to sixth form secondary, with their own iPad.

And even younger primary pupils will be given one of the hi-tech devices to share in the two-year roll-out programme.

The newly-announced Inspire Learning programme also wants to invest £16 million on a replacement primary school in Eyemouth, £9 million for a new Earlston Primary, and to fund progress towards new high schools being built in both Galashiels and Hawick.

Council leader Shona Haslam told us: “Despite being faced with significant financial challenges, this administration is presenting a really exciting budget for the Borders, packed with huge investment plans at a truly vital time for our economy.

“It has not been an easy process but central to our thinking, for the entire process, was our commitment to protecting the most vulnerable individuals, families and communities of the Borders.

"We have had to make over £8 million in savings for this year, this is combined with £16 million last year - it has been a very challenging budget.

“While other Council areas are making cuts to frontline services, we are making one of the biggest investment in history for our schools in terms of digital transformation and we are hugely proud of that.

“The time is now, we simply cannot hold off a project like this.

"Our schools absolutely will be the best learning and teaching environments in the country, putting pupils at the heart of learning.

“Combined with our plans for new schools and school improvements, the Inspire Learning programme will make our schools world-class and enhance the excellent learning opportunities that our fabulous teachers already provide."

Despite speculation, the proposals by the Conservative/Indepedent administration don't include any changes to bin collections.

A new recycling awareness campaign is also to be launched.

And they are safeguarding all public toilets during 2019/20.

Policing from the Community Action Team will continue with a permanent funding stream being announced, and a further seven officers employed to create a second team.

And an extra £2.3 million has been found for roads and pavements repairs.

But the investment will come at a cost with proposals being put forward to increase council tax by a further one percent from April - taking the annual increase up to four percent from last year.

Councillor Robin Tatler, Executive Member for Finance, explained: “A balanced budget is increasingly hard to achieve, particularly when public expectations are so high, demand for various services is increasing and public finances are reducing.

“The decision to propose a four percent increase to council tax for example, was not an easy one.

"However, a small increase of 88p per week for a Band D property will support many areas of our ambitious budget including accelerating the replacement of Hawick High School and some much needed additional funds for our roads and pavements.

“Council Tax makes up less than a quarter of all the funding the council receives and this increase is only the third in 12 years, during which time the funds the council receives from other sources has reduced."

The administration has also proposed an additional £3 million of capital spend on extra care housing projects in Hawick, Kelso, Eyemouth and Peebles compliment proposed developments at Todlaw in Duns and Langhaugh in Galashiels.

A £1.2 million community pot is also to be established to replace current funding streams for festivals and other community initiatives.

Councillor Sandy Aitchison, depute leader of Scottish Borders Council, added: “This administration has worked extremely hard to make sure that our budget will support the most vulnerable in our communities, help our children and young people achieve their full potential and protect the services that people use on a daily basis.

“It also provides the funding for major projects that will protect towns from flooding, regenerate high streets, create new and high quality jobs and increase the number of tourists coming to the Borders as well as attracting people to come and live and work here.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for the public to play their part going forward which is why we are proposing an overhaul of the community funding system to make it easier than ever before to access funding, and to have a say on how funding in local areas is used."

The five-year revenue and ten-year captial budget proposals will be considered next Thursday at a full meeting of Scottish Borders Council.