Salmond accused over Huntly floods

A north-east MSP has accused Scotland’s first minister of “grandstanding” over flooding problems at Huntly.

Nanette Milne wrote to Alex Salmond asking for Scottish Government money to address the issue.

She said he came up with “nothing” to help Aberdeenshire Council.

The Conservative MSP added: “At a public meeting in Huntly in November, arranged specifically for the victims of the recent flooding there, the first minister demanded that Aberdeenshire Council take immediate action to address the risk of further flooding in Huntly.

“In light of the first minister’s very public demands for Aberdeenshire Council to take immediate action to address the flooding problems, I wrote to him to ask him to outline what additional financial support the SNP government will be giving to fund this investment.

“It would seem from his response that the first minister says one thing in Huntly and another in Holyrood. Having demanded significant investment, the first minister has come up with nothing to help Aberdeenshire Council.

“In his letter responding to my question, the first minister lists schemes which the Scottish Government supported.

“He failed to point out that these were schemes in the pipeline and did not include any Aberdeenshire schemes.”

SNP Gordon prospective Westminster parliamentary candidate Richard Thomson pointed out that, unlike Dr Milne, Mr Salmond was present at the public meeting in the aftermath of the floods.

He said: “The reality is that the SNP government has already massively increased spending on flood protection measures. As Mr Salmond made clear in his response to Nanette Milne, it is for Aberdeenshire Council to take forward action to tackle the recent flooding problems in Huntly and he will continue to encourage them to do so.”