Council on the road to ruin say Conservatives

So claims South Lanarkshire Council’s opposition Conservative Group, alleging that the SNP administration rejected its suggestion to invest a ‘spare’ £2.1m in the council’s coffers to extra road maintenance and instead banked the unspent cash in SLC’s reserve funds.

The Tory proposal, backed by Labour, was voted down by an alliance of SNP, Independent and Lib-Dem councillors at a recent council executive meeting.

Conservative group leader and Clydesdale East councillor Alex Allison, said: “It is incredibly disappointing that the SNP administration failed to accept this extra money could be put to good use improving our roads. We need to be clear: this was unused money. That means it could have been invested on roads maintenance without taking a single penny away from other projects. Everyone in South Lanarkshire is affected by the state of the roads.

“Uneven surfaces make it harder for vulnerable residents to get around, damage people’s cars and deter businesses from creating jobs here.”

However, an spokesman for the SNP retorted: “The proposal put forward by the Conservative Party was confused at best and incompetent at worst. They suggested putting money into reserves to be ring-fenced for road improvements, but should council officers decide that another spending priority should take precedence, that it should not be ring-fenced.

“In other words, they never proposed spending £2 million on road improvements, they proposed putting it into reserves – the exact same as the recommendations in the report. Instead of competent governance, the Tories grandstand at every opportunity. It is clear that they aren’t fit for opposition, never mind administration.”