Question reference: S5W-31481
- Asked by: Mike Rumbles, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
- Date lodged: 31 August 2020
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 September 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the request by Aberdeenshire Council for emergency funding to replace the bridges that have been damaged by flash flooding near King Edward, Banff, and what action it will take to ensure that people and businesses living in the community are not cut off from each other and from services.
Answer
Maintenance of the local road network is the responsibility of local authorities to allocate resources on the basis of local priorities. The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations. It is therefore the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.
The Scottish Government has taken exceptional measures in every area of government as we deal with the challenges of COVID-19, and that is particularly clear in our support for local services. To date, almost £330 million of additional funding has been committed to local authorities by the Scottish Government and to avoid any potential cash flow problems we agreed with COSLA to front-load our weekly grant payments to local authorities by £455 million during May, June and July.