Aberdeen councillors will learn the predicted financial impact of coronavirus on its budgets next month– amid calls for financial help from the Scottish Government.
The plea for help from co-leader Douglas Lumsden comes as the Covid-19 lockdown begins to take its toll on council coffers.
Financial officials will come forward with projections of just how badly the local authority might be affected at an urgent business meeting on May 6.
Mr Lumsden said: “We are putting a huge amount of work into the fight against coronavirus and it can’t be for us to pick up the bill for everything.
“It would only be fair for funding to be passed on to councils.
“We don’t know how much of a hole the virus could leave us with yet, but I’m sure it will be sizeable.
“That’s why the Scottish Government can’t forget about local authorities at this time, when there is such strain on our finances with projected income from things like parking charges not coming in.”
Earlier this week, £600 million was issued to the Scottish Government from Westminster to help fund the emergency response to the crisis.
But it has since emerged all of that money has already been pledged elsewhere, including to the NHS and struggling charities.
Local Government Minister Kevin Stewart said: “The money from the coronavirus emergency response fund – due to Scotland as a consequence of UK Government spending elsewhere – has already been allocated to support a range of important measures in the fight against the pandemic.
The Aberdeen Central MSP added: “While we welcome the funding provided to date, we will continue to strongly press the UK Government for urgent additional funding for the health service, local government and care sector to adequately deal with the scale of this crisis.”
