Scottish Budget: Nicola Sturgeon urged to stop closure of Falkirk swimming pools

Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to fund councils properly to stop the closure of swimming pools in Falkirk.

Conservative MSP Graham Simpson raised at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday the considered closure of four school and one public swimming pool in Falkirk “to make ends meet”.

He said: “I’ve had numerous emails about this and it boils down to council funding cuts from this Government. Does the First Minister agree with me that closing swimming pools is a retrograde step and what does she intend to do about it?”

Ms Sturgeon claimed council budgets were not being cut and instead were seeing a £570 million increase – a figure disputed by umbrella council body Cosla, which put the figure closer to £70m.

First Minster Nicola Sturgeon during First Minster's Questions in the debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh

The SNP leader added: "Of course, had the Tories had their way and we’d seen tax cuts for the very richest in our society, council budgets would have had to be cut, so thankfully we didn’t follow Conservative advice in that regard.

"We are still in the budget process, so here is an offer to the member and indeed all on the Tory benches. We work within an effectively fixed budget. Where we can increase revenue we are doing that by asking those who earn the most to pay a little bit more to help public services.

"If the Tories, contrary to their actions south of the border, but if here the Tories want to see more money for councils or for anybody else, then tell us where within that draft budget we should take that money and we’re happy to have that conversation.”

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