Alex Salmond defends his government over claims of complacency

Published on Thursday 7 January 2010 21:51

ALEX Salmond was forced to defend his government's record in handling the severe weather after ministers were accused of being complacent.

The issue dominated First Minister's questions at the Scottish Parliament, where Mr Salmond was asked to explain why his finance secretary John Swinney had claimed on national radio that there were perfectly adequate walking conditions in Scotland.

The question from Labour leader Iain Gray was followed by one over why it took the Scottish Government so long to put advice on its website. Information in the Weather Wise section only went up on Monday and the Scottish Government said it only started talking to local radio stations about putting out information this week.

The Labour leader said:

"How complacent is a government which takes three weeks to provide advice to vulnerable people?"

He also claimed that the only advice he had been able to find on the website was on feeding birds in the winter and telling people to get outdoors in 2010.

"I feed the birds in my garden too but it's not my first priority. . That's the information that's been readily available over the last two and three weeks."

The exchanges clearly angered Mr Salmond who attacked Mr Gray for "missing the moment" and not being constructive.

"I understand the frustration that people have across Scotland in terms of local roads and pavements and walking conditions. But I also know the people of Scotland understand the point that was made to me yesterday by Pat Watters the (Labour] leader of Cosla," said Mr Salmond.

"That was that in these circumstances all of us, government and local authorities, have to husband our supplies of salt and grit to be able to cope with the expected weeks of severe weather."