No joy, no cheer, just tears as councillors erupt in anger over £100,000 Christmas lights and decorations
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CITY leaders have been attacked again over a decision to spend close to £100,000 on Christmas decorations for Inverness Town House and the city centre.
Opposition councillors lined up at the full council meeting to lambast the leadership for the decision previously reported by the Courier, with at least one close to tears as he spoke of constituents with nothing to eat.
A controversial Inverness area committee meeting early last month which lasted just 17 minutes saw a raft of decisions on helping some of the city’s worst off residents deferred.
It was argued then that councillors needed to wait until the Chancellor’s autumn statement before taking any new financial decisions but those deferred measures did not then come back to a later meeting, though it was agreed that a one-off winter payment of £97 per needy household should be increased for those most in need to £150 per eligible person.
Opposition Liberal Democrat leader Councillor Alasdair Christie asked previously: “Where is the common good in three Christmas trees within eight feet of each other?”
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And at the meeting he sought to have the spending on Christmas decorations for the town house halted and diverted instead to poverty-related measures – only to be told that all but £500 of the budget had already been spent.
On that basis he lodged a motion calling for more responsibility from Inverness members when it came to spending common good cash.
His motion urged councillors to “reflect upon the current economic situation and resultant poverty levels” and “ensure that funds are always targeted in the best possible way.”
Leader of Inverness, Cllr Ian Brown, said such a matter was for local members rather than full council to decide and submitted an amendment remitting the issue of how to spend the £500 to the committee .
Other opposition councillors, however, attacked the previous handling of the whole issue, Cllr Isabelle Mackenzie saying she had felt “mugged” by the process of the 17-minute meeting which she said came without warning, adding: “We did not have proper time and duration to deal with the matter in hand.”
She also blasted the “short-term, short-lived project” of the Christmas lights which, she said, “will not bring a lot of ho-ho joy and Christmas cheer.”
The most passionate attack came from Cllr Duncan Macpherson who said: “We should always be getting the best value for the public pound – and, remember, the Inverness common good fund is money that can be spent for the public.
“People, my constituents, tell me what ‘nothing’ is – ‘nothing’ is what they’ve got in the fridge, ‘nothing’ is what they’ve got in their larders and we are squandering the public money.
“I am incensed.”
Cllr Helen Crawford said she worried about what message was being spent to the public about the council’s values.
“It’s actually about more than perception,” she said. “It’s about actual reality.
“In reality it’s being spent on things like lamp post garlands and wreaths above doors, inner door wreaths, stair bannister wreaths, great hall five hanging wreaths and so on.
“In the current situation what we are experiencing is profligate spending.”
After Cllr Christie’s motion was defeated by 26 votes to 38, he said: “The outcome is incredibly disappointing as (it shows) the majority of Highland councillors would prefer to spend money on baubles, tinsel and decorations rather than measures to help struggling families.
“The £500 that is left – what will we do with £500 when we have hundreds and hundreds of families struggling?
“It really is a bad joke for Christmas and a slap in the face for Inverness communities.”
