Council funding for the Aberdeen International Youth Festival (AIYF) and the Year of Young People has been thrown into limbo – after councillors ran out of time to vote.
Yesterday was set to be D-Day for AIYF after a heated political battle in recent weeks whether the local authority should continue to support it.
Running for more than four decades, there was outcry when it first emerged that council funding would be cut.
But heavy criticism has been focussed on the governance of the festival and dwindling audiences.
Under council rules, meetings can only run for four hours unless two-thirds of councillors vote to allow them to continue longer.
While the ruling administration councillors argued the meeting should continue to the vote, there was not enough support in the chamber and the meeting ended.
Lord Provost Barney Crockett ended proceedings and said they would not be meeting again until after the new year.
The Conservatives had used special motions on two previous items of business to suspend debate and push ahead to a vote.
Last night SNP group leader Stephen Flynn said it was this “stifling of debate” that had led them to not voting to continue the meeting.
Conservative group leader Douglas Lumsden said that the two issues had previously been debated at length and that the suspension of the meeting meant that the year of young people funding could not move forward.
