Youth employment funding blow...

So it is official: the SNP Government does not believe that youth unemployment in Inverclyde is bad enough to justify a share of the £9m they are allocating to local authorities, despite the fact that we have a higher unemployment rate than 3 of the 6 Councils - including neighbouring SNP controlled Renfrewshire - who are being allocated funding.

Surprise, surprise the money has been given to 6 councils that the SNP are either trying to hold onto or take control of at May's council elections. Clearly the SNP have already written off their chances in Inverclyde.

Coming on top of savage cuts to Riverside Inverclyde funding; the fact that we were not even able to bid to become an enterprise area; and the pitiful number of posts we were given through the Community Jobs Fund, this is another hammer blow to Inverclyde from the SNP Government.

Fortunately for the young people of Inverclyde the current Administration recognises that we do have a major youth unemployment problem, which is why we allocated an additional £600,000 for a range of initiatives in our February budget. At the time the budget was set I had anticipated that we would also receive our fair share of the additional funding announced by the Scottish Government as part of their budget. To say I am disappointed is an understatement.

I will be writing in the strongest possible terms to the SNP Youth Employment Minister Angela Constance to protest about the fact that we have received none of this funding.