Fraserburgh Councillor Seamus Logan Reflects Local Anger on Council Budget Cuts

Budget cuts made by Conservative-led administration on Aberdeenshire Council at its meeting last Thursday will include the loss of school patrollers in Fraserburgh and the shelving of progress towards development of a new primary school for the town.

Other front-line services affected included special needs provision for children experiencing speech and language difficulties.

Commenting on these decisions, local SNP councillor Seamus Logan said he had been made aware of substantial local anger:

“Local residents have been expressing dismay to me and on social media about the effects of these decisions. In relation to the school patrol service, it’s not that long ago that a child was hit by a car here in Fraserburgh and narrowly escaped serious injury and folk just cannot understand the thinking behind this.”

Cllr Logan stated that the SNP-led opposition group had argued against this and also asked for a small amount to be included in the capital plan for the proposed new primary school in Fraserburgh, replacing St Andrews and the North School.

This would have meant that local people would see the Council’s continuing commitment to the plans for the new primary school but these alternative proposals were rejected by Independent, Conservative and Lib Dem councillors in the administration group.

“I understand that difficult decisions needed to be made but the Council still has substantial reserves which could have been deployed to avoid some of these cuts.”