I am frankly astonished at the latest comments by Dundee City Council Leader, Councillor Guild, in tonight's Evening Telegraph. Mr Guild claimed that the SNP administration has “achieved all of our objectives” - at a time when education expenditure alone has been slashed by over £4 million.
Cllr Guild says he doesn’t want to appear self-congratulatory but that’s exactly what he is coming across as. The latest comments by Mr Guild strike an entirely inappropriate chord at a time when council services are being cut.
The SNP administration has a “topsy turvy” set of priorities. I am taken aback to learn that Councillor Guild is still wanting to pay thousands of pounds for celebrities to appear at council events at a time when vital services were under severe pressure.
There is absolutely no evidence to support Cllr Guild’s that celebrity attendance at events ‘more than justifies the fee’. There can be no justification for paying celebrities thousands of pounds as £4m is slashed from education in the city and council workers are being forced to accept a pay freeze – effectively a cut after inflation is taken into account.
I am increasingly of the view that the SNP administration had lost touch with reality. It is difficult to take seriously any Education Convener who thinks £4m of education cuts will somehow miraculously make education services better as Cllr Fordyce, the Education Convener, has claimed.
Mr Guild claims that opposition councillors are ignoring their responsibilities - this is simply inaccurate. My Liberal Democrat colleague Cllr Helen Dick and I are meeting the Chief Executive and Department Directors on Tuesday to seek answers on budget cuts.
Opposition councillors are working hard in the best interests of our constituents. It is the SNP that has lost sense of reality.