Angus MacDonald: Liberal Democrats

First Minister, where is Lochaber’s money? Steadily, year after year local government has its budget cut, and more money and decision-making move to Holyrood.

As the Fraser of Allander writes: ‘In the four years from 2013/14 the core local government settlement declined by £750 million in real terms, equivalent

to a seven per cent reduction in its budget. By 2022/23 core local funding …is lower in real terms than it was in 2017/18’.

The vast majority of local authority budget is ‘ring fenced’ for education and social care. So if you want to know why there are so many potholes, roadside litter isn’t cleared up, why the Nevis Centre nor the Fort William underpass hasn’t been refurbished, and why all financial requests to the Highland Council

seem to get rejected, the answer is the Scottish Government is starving rural Scotland of funds.

Is this Westminster’s fault? Research by the Scottish Parliaments information centre shows that funding to Scottish councils was cut at three times that of the Scottish Government itself. Can you name any significant infrastructure project that has happened in the last decade in Lochaber? I can’t.

The central belt gets billions, trams