Shadow Finance Secretary Donald Cameron has said that the SNP Government’s persistent under-funding of councils, particularly in the North of Scotland, is putting essential services at risk.
Mr Cameron made his comments after figures from the BBC Shared Data Unit revealed that the council facing the biggest budget shortfall is Highland Council.
Mr Cameron, a Highlands and Islands MSP, said: “The financial crisis facing Highland Council is truly shocking, representing a shortfall of £411 per resident."
“For a council like Highland to be potentially facing a total shortfall of £96.9 million is proof that the SNP’s Central Belt focus is coming at a very high price for the communities I represent."
“The warning signs were there well before the Covid-19 pandemic struck and if we don't put our local authorities back on a stable financial footing, then many of the essential services they provide will be put at risk.”
HCUA Comment:
The SNP has been cynically and systematically starving the Highlands of resources for well over a decade. It pours many hundreds of millions of pounds into projects in areas where it thinks it has to shore up its vote, and takes the votes of people in the Highlands for granted.
There is only one way to stop this: kick out the rotten SNP from government by voting Scottish Conservative.