The SNP council group at Aberdeenshire Council this week raised concerns about the ongoing impact on communities following a budgetary decision by the Tory and Lib Dem administration to not fill and remove a number of grit bins.
At a meeting of the full Aberdeenshire Council on Thursday 15th January, officers presented a paper on the transformation strategy for the council, which outlined how they wished to see the organisation change how they operate. SNP Group Leader, Cllr Gwyneth Petrie, took the opportunity to point out that if the council wished to work with communities to see real change, then they needed to stop making decisions which made it harder for residents to help out.
In Case You Missed it:
Commenting, Cllr Gwyneth Petrie, said:
“Today we were presented with a paper which said that the Council must work with communities in order to transform how it works. We know that the council are going to ask communities to take on more as we move forward, but recent decisions like the removal of a number of grit bins flies in the face of this.
“If you are going to ask communities to do more, you have to enable them to do so. Over the last two weeks we have seen that our residents are more than willing to step up when needed – but if you remove the tools and materials required to do so, then we just create resentment.
“Despite claims from some Tory councillors online, our group categorically rejected this budget saving because we could see the problems that it created. There needs to be a solid commitment from the Tory and Lib Dem administration to meaningfully engage and work with communities to ensure that we are delivering on what they want to see from us as a council.
“As we all work towards setting the budget for 2026/27, I hope that the current administration reflect on the difficulties that their decisions from last year have caused, and look to set a budget which is much more centred on those they represent for the coming year.”
