SWINNEY HAS MORAL RESPONSIBILITY TO ALLOCATE MONEY FAIRLY

12.00.00am GMT Thu 26th Nov 2009

Liberal Democrat Local Government spokesperson Alison McInnes MSP says that the method of distributing local government finance as announced today is unfair.

Alison McInnes said:

"There is a moral responsibility on the Cabinet Secretary to ensure that the distribution of taxpayer's money to local authorities is distributed fairly. He has shirked that responsibility. Instead of independently reviewing the way money is shared out, he delegated the decision to those with a vested interest in the status quo.

"It cannot be right that there is such a range in funding per head of population when all local authorities have a duty to provide similar essential services.

"Even the SNP chief whip thinks this process is neither fair nor balanced.

"It is also absurd that John Swinney has refused to use the distribution formula to allocate ex-ring fenced funds while advocating the same method for distributing new funding."

Ends.