Spending on Council's Biennial Design Awards "Untenable" in Light of Looming Cuts to Services
>> 2 December 2022
Aberdeenshire councillors yesterday agreed to cease the biennial Aberdeenshire Architectural and Landscape Design Awards in light of cost pressures – unless outside sponsorship can be found to allow the event to proceed at no cost to the taxpayer.
SNP councillor Glen Reid (East Garioch) proposed that the event, which has run for 13 years, should stop and the funding instead be used to fund services which might otherwise be cut. He was seconded in that proposal by fellow SNP councillor Stephen Smith (Peterhead South and Cruden).
The budget for the event and the organising of the competition and judging was given as £15,000, which councillors pointed out would be better used to fund council services in light of looming budget cuts.
Commenting, Cllr Glen Reid said:
“If there was a way for this to proceed with no cost to the council taxpayer – such as fully virtual or through sponsorship - then I would be happy to support it continuing. However, I can’t support spending money on this when we are shortly going to be asked to make some very hard decisions on essential services.”
Cllr Stephen Smith added: