Letter: Budget concerns

Aberdeen City Council is currently broke and paring back staff and services to the bone to meet tight budgets and get through another financial squeeze.

On the other hand, it is also planning to spend 140 million on concreting over Union Terrace Gardens, which will allegedly be paid for with the tax-incremental finance scheme serviced by business taxes that has some questionable assumptions and projections.

If the same proposal had been made for Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens there would have been an outrage and accusations of lunacy.

Why doesn't the Aberdeen council wake up to see the dilemma that Edinburgh has got itself into with the tram project and learn that local authority project management has a poor performance record in Scotland and rarely keeps within budget.

Dennis Grattan

Mugimeoss Road

Bucksburn, Aberdeen