SNP support council plan to cut £27m

Thousands of protestors marched in Aberdeen recently in one of the biggest demonstrations seen in years against the £27 million of cuts being pushed through by the Lib Dem/SNP coalition which runs Aberdeen City Council. SNP leaders were booed and heckled as they tried to justify the cuts which if implemented would mean schools, leisure facilities and organisations in the voluntary sector which rely on council funding will be closed.

Alan Manley

Aberdeen

This financial crisis could result in hundreds of redundancies. In its haste to cut funding to voluntary projects, the council have apparently failed to comply with laws concerning disability rights, and it is now being threatened with legal action.

Funding is being withdrawn from several care organisations, and social work services, sports centres and libraries will also be affected.

The art deco Bon Accord Baths - the city's oldest pool - is to close down, as is the children's farm at Doonies. This is on top of a public enquiry which is to be held into the council's financial crisis by the Accounts Commission. This body has the power to appoint trouble shooting advisers. This could put the council into administration.

It also emerged that the council is paying consultants working on a new council HQ more than £7million while wielding the axe on services for vulnerable people.

Teachers at three Aberdeen secondary schools have also passed a motion of no confidence in the city council.

The members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) union at Dyce, St Machar and Torry academies are worried about cutbacks. The EIS fears between 60 and 80 teaching posts could go.

The council's Labour "opposition" has inevitably seized on this in order to score points, but Aberdeen Central, Labour MSP, Lewis McDonald summed up his false concern. Referring to the "scrutiny" the council would be under during the enquiry he said, "the council should not go through with plans for the cuts until the enquiry is over". In other words... cuts are ok, so long as they are not carried out in the public gaze.