22nd October 2007
Minister
Refuses to Act to Avert Community Regeneration Funding Crisis
Despite the Community Regeneration
Funding crisis deepening, Communities Minister, Stewart Maxwell, is still
refusing to act to save vital local projects.
MSP for Greenock and
Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, has also disputed the Minister’s claim that he is
powerless to avert local projects closing and laying off their dedicated,
experienced staff.
“The Minister has ruled out
any transitional funding arrangements which could save vital projects in our
community from being forced to close,” Mr McNeil said today.
“In his latest letter to
me, the Minister claims that he is, ‘not in a position to make decisions about
future funding until the spending review’, but this version of events is hard
to swallow.
“The Minister has the power
to grant interim funding which would bridge any funding gap, thus allowing
important organisations to avoid issuing redundancy notices to dedicated members
of staff and closing their doors for good.
“The spending review
argument is equally spurious. The
review has not prevented the SNP Government from finding money to re-brand
itself, to promise to abolish tolls on the Forth and Tay bridges, to commit to
the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route and for other matters it thinks are
priorities. I can only conclude
that, if they did see these community projects as important, the necessary funds
would have been secured long ago.
“As it is disingenuous for
the Minister to claim that his hands are tied, I have renewed my representations
to the Minister, urging again that he reconsiders his position and takes action
before it is too late. Standing
idly by while important projects close and staff lose their jobs to prove some
imagined political point would be short-sighted in the extreme.”
ENDS
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