Tuesday 6 October 2009

Glasgow - well funded, by the way!

I see that Bob Doris MSP has had a Parliamentary Question answered which shows that Glasgow gets the highest funding per head of any part of mainland Scotland. The three island communities get more - I would imagine as a result of the special difficulties of delivering council services on islands. Do the bin lorries go on the ferries? I've just thought of that! Does each island have separate facilities for disposal of waste?

Anyway, here's the per capita figures for each council and the Scottish average in descending order:

Shetland Islands
4821
Eilean Siar
4769
Orkney Islands
4032
Glasgow City
2871
Argyll & Bute
2755
West Dunbartonshire
2533
Highland
2477
Inverclyde
2431
Dundee City
2427
Dumfries & Galloway
2321
Moray
2307
Scotland
2254
North Ayrshire
2251
Scottish Borders
2233
Stirling
2204
Midlothian
2186
Renfrewshire
2185
North Lanarkshire
2180
East Ayrshire
2157
Clackmannanshire
2145
Angus
2125
East Renfrewshire
2125
South Lanarkshire
2068
South Ayrshire
2062
Falkirk
2055
Fife
2032
East Lothian
2007
West Lothian
2001
Edinburgh (City of)
1994
Perth & Kinross
1973
East Dunbartonshire
1961
Aberdeenshire
1946
Aberdeen City
1876

Now, I know that Glasgow has special social problems that warrant this extra funding, but it's been pouring in there for years - surely we should be seeing some changes by now - what has the council been doing to address those problems?

44% per head more than Edinburgh? Surely that's not needed at that level. Other areas with particular needs aren't coining it either - Highlands, for example, sparse population but £394 per head less than Glasgow with its dense population. There may be some argument for Aberdeen getting almost £1,000 less than Glasgow on the grounds that Aberdeen has wealth around it from the oil industry (I doubt whether such a disparity can be justified, though), but even East Dunbartonshire is £910 adrift - it's true, but!

Yes, it's true that Glasgow has problems and needs extra funding to cope with them, but I can't help asking what Glasgow Council has been doing all these years with all that extra money - it certainly wasn't sorting out the problems faced by the people they're supposed to represent. Perhaps it would be fairer, actually, to ask what the administration on Glasgow Council has been doing for decades.

Anybody know?

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