‘I should have cut spending earlier’

ABERDEEN City Council’s former finance boss today admitted he made mistakes over its finances.

And Cllr Neil Fletcher said he should have closed Bon Accord baths sooner.

The former council finance convener and Lib Dems’ deputy leader also said he should have forced through social care cuts when his party came to power four years ago.

His comments came after an inquiry was ordered by the Accounts Commission into the council’s finances and planned £27 million cuts.

The public hearing follows a highly-critical report on the council by the Audit Commission.

It said the council was in a “precarious” financial position, criticised its sickness rates and said it had failed to make previously announced savings.

Cllr Fletcher said: “My biggest mistake was that for four-and-a-half years I fought hard to keep Bon Accord Baths open.

“As much as I wanted to protect a building I should have insisted that the money wasn’t there to keep it open 2004.

“Another massive cost in Aberdeen is social care and my view is that we should have reduced spending on it earlier.

“I didn’t take this approach because I didn’t want to cut services, but as a council we should have faced up to the reality that we didn’t have the money earlier, however unpopular this would have been.

“The reality is that we probably wouldn’t have won the vote to do all this in the council chamber, but I take part of the blame for not being able to push things through more quickly.”

Bon Accord baths and Doonies Farm are facing the axe as part of the cuts while the Linx Ice Arena is being mothballed.

Cllr Fletcher said that the main reason for the council’s financial difficulties was a £20 million bill to fund equal pay settlements.

He said other rocketing costs that contributed to the crisis included the growing of caring for an aging population and rising costs for getting rid of rubbish.

Cllr Fletcher said: “I welcome the inquiry because I want people across Scotland to see that the streets of Aberdeen aren’t paved with gold.

“Aberdeen gets approximately £1,900 per person from the Scottish government, whereas the national average is £2,200 and for Glasgow it’s £2,700.

“I’m hoping the inquiry will get all this out in the open so this can be addressed nationally.”

Cllr Fletcher said he was now preparing his case for the inquiry.

North-east Labour MSP Richard Baker said: “Neil Fletcher is right to apologise about the fact that he’s made mistakes.

“I do think he’s apologising for the wrong mistakes though because Bon Accord Baths should be kept open and the cuts in social care and other services should not be happening.”

Council leader Kate Dean said the council was trying to modernise but its attempts faced resistance.

She said: “There has been a difficulty in persuading people of the need for change.

“A new director has speeded up some of the changes, but they have not been in place long and we’re going in the right direction.”

awhitaker@ajl.co.uk