Lochhead should be supporting not criticising Moray Council
Moray MP Douglas Ross has called on the area’s MSP to honour his pledge to the people of Moray by supporting them during a time of financial crisis rather than taking sides with his party at Holyrood.
The local MP was commenting after SNP MSP Richard Lochhead spoke during a question session in the Scottish Parliament about reports that councils were using their reserves to support local services, due to the lack of Scottish Government funding.
Douglas said: “Richard Lochhead accused the council leader George Alexander of causing alarm by saying that Moray Council is nearly bankrupt, incorrectly stating that Moray’s local authority, the constituency he represents, were the only one in Scotland declaring themselves as nearly bankrupt when just this week, two other councils, Clackmannanshire and North Ayrshire both said they were in an equally precarious position.
Douglas added: “During the ten years that I served as a Moray Councillor, the administration called on the Scottish Government to give them a better settlement to save local services, but those pleas fell on stony ground.
“Now we have a situation where the council leader has spoken out, as one of three local authorities in Scotland to do so, because they are on the verge of bankruptcy and it’s not a question of scaling back local services, it’s a question of saving the council from disaster.
“Yet instead of calling for a better settlement from the Government and supporting the people in his constituency Moray’s MSP is ridiculing the council leader in the Scottish Parliament and political point scoring which is a slap in the face for his constituents and why I am speaking out.”
“The Scottish Government got an extra £2 billion in last week’s UK budget from the chancellor so the SNP have no excuse not to invest in services for local people.”