QUESTION PURCELL MUST ANSWER IS WHAT WOULD HE CUT?

QUESTION PURCELL MUST ANSWER IS WHAT WOULD HE CUT?

CLOSING GLASGOW SCHOOLS IS THE DAGGER IN GLASGOW’S HEART,

DOES HE REALLY WANT ANOTHER TRAMS FIASCO?

Glasgow SNP MSP Bob Doris has challenged Glasgow Labour council leader to say what he would cut after repeating his demand that the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) should be reinstated into the budget.

This is despite the fact that GARL was going massively over budget like the trams scheme in Edinburgh and despite the fact Glasgow Labour have the best funding settlement of any mainland council in Scotland – 31% per head more than South Lanarkshire and 23% more than North Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire. Yet Mr Purcell presides over a council administration which refuses to employ more teachers and closes schools.

Mr Doris, a former Glasgow teacher who has been active in campaigning against Labour’s closure programme in Glasgow, has criticised Glasgow Labour for their appalling record in employing teachers and closing schools whilst wanting to waste hundreds of millions on an out of control project.

Commenting Mr Doris said:

“The only question that has to be answered about GARL is what does Mr Purcell think should be cut from the Scottish budget to pay for it since his party in London cut the Scottish budget by £500 million?

“With Labour’s government in London cutting Scottish spending by £500 million and the costs of GARL escalating, cancelling the project was the only option before it became another trams fiasco like we have seen in Edinburgh.

“People I meet are aghast that the costs to just move the fuel dump at the airport escalated from £8 million to £70 million. They also tell me that the real dagger in the heart of Glasgow has been Labour’s school closure programme and the council's failure to invest in new teachers and smaller classes.

“Yet Mr Purcell thinks it will be a good idea to carry on with spending on an out of control project whilst closing schools! How can he justify this when it is his government in London which is cutting £500 million from the Scottish budget?

“How can he justify it when Glasgow receives the most funding per head of all Scottish mainland councils?

“If Mr Purcell and Labour are intent on putting GARL back into the budget they must answer where they will make the corresponding cuts to pay for it?

"Will they want the funding to come from the SNP Government's funding commitment to Fastlink which will connect people and facilities all over the city, and bring much greater benefit to people across Glasgow?

"Or will it come from other major projects the SNP Government is delivering in Glasgow - the M74, the new Southern General Hospital, the National Indoor Sports Arena and all the Commonwealth Games facilities, and new colleges?

“The Scottish Government published a draft Budget, and Mr Purcell’s colleagues in the Scottish Parliament now have every opportunity to propose costed alternatives.

"If Labour fail to propose reinstating GARL in Budget amendments and explain what they would cut to pay for it, they will be exposed as guilty of the most disgraceful hypocrisy in Glasgow, and Steven Purcell won’t have a leg to stand on.”