First Minister 'tells head of Glasgow City Council to grow up'

Published on Friday 25 September 2009 00:29

A RIFT deepened last night between Scotland's biggest city and the Scottish Government, over the scrapping of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link.

Stephen Purcell, leader of Glasgow City Council, said First Minister Alex Salmond told him to "behave like a grown-up" during a meeting yesterday.

However, Mr Salmond said the council leader had not asked for the Glasgow Airport Rail Link (GARL) to be reinstated and described the discussion at Holyrood as "useful". He insisted the rail link was not essential to the running of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Mr Purcell vowed to join opposition parties to fight to resurrect the link. He said: "I wanted us to begin a discussion that reinstated trust between the city and the government. I was told to behave like a grown-up. You cannot begin to rebuild trust if that is the starting point."

The talks were part of a series of meetings in the build-up to the 2014 Games. The council leader said he was told the rail link issue would not be discussed in detail.

Mr Purcell said he did not believe government claims that the price of the link had escalated by 70 million and called for a breakdown of the costs and the process that led to the scrapping of the route.

He accused Mr Salmond of being reluctant to guarantee a 2.3m loan from the EU, which was holding up the refurbishment of Dalmarnock station in the city – which he described as the "gateway" to the Games.

"I'm just flabbergasted that we could not get a commitment to underwrite a crucial loan so that this second project, which is in doubt, could be reassured."

Finance secretary John Swinney announced last week that GARL was being cancelled amid fears of cost overruns as he set out his draft Budget to the Scottish Parliament. The announcement drew an angry reaction from Labour politicians in the city and business leaders.

But Mr Salmond insisted GARL was not essential to a successful Games being staged. "The Glasgow-Paisley line improvements are going ahead," he said. "The priority should be to focus on a delivering a top-flight, top-class Games and that's what we are doing."

The First Minister said Mr Purcell had complained about GARL being terminated, but had not asked for its reinstatement. "I explained, as Mr Swinney did, that in the circumstances of capital cuts, you have to make tough decisions," Mr Salmond said.

"We have a disagreement about GARL but, hopefully, we can put that to one side and get on with delivering the Games – and, in particular, looking at the enhanced projects for the whole of Glasgow."

Mr Salmond said the project could not be justified in the current climate. "The major thing to do is to focus on how we deliver a first-class Games for Glasgow, for Scotland and for the Commonwealth."

He cited "huge" capital spending earmarked for Glasgow. "I certainly hope we can go forward with substantial discussions on Dalmarnock," he said.

He questioned what projects critics would scrap in order to pay for GARL and said: "Politics is the language of priorities and my priority is huge capital spend in Glasgow at present and the exciting developments to come."