At the Fife Council budget meeting, Fife Liberal Democrat leader Councillor James Calder led the Liberal Democrat response to the Administration budget. The Liberal Democrats welcomes the budget after the Administration agreed to include several key Liberal Democrat priorities, including:

• £500,000 for additional educational psychologists to help tackle school violence and support mental health
• Over £1,000,000 committed towards flood mitigation measures
• £3,500,000 extra for road repairs
• £20,000 to ensure pedestrian access in recycling sites such as St Andrews
• £250,000 for urgent work at Craigtoun Park

After the budget passed, James Calder commented,

The Liberal Democrats engaged with the Administration throughout the budget process and I am pleased that they agreed to include our key priorities.

We ensured more supporting to tackle school violence through educational psychologists, funding to help tackle flooding issues caused by the Climate Emergency and increased budgets to tackle crumbling roads.

We also ensured support for localised issues such as improving pedestrian access to recycling centres such as in St Andrews and releasing funds to help with urgent issues in Craigtoun Park.

I am pleased today the budget has passed and that the Liberal Democrats had a positive influence with benefits for all residents of Fife.

This was achieved despite a challenging long-term outlook caused by a SNP Government who are failing to properly support local government in Scotland.

Fife Liberal Democrats will always deliver for our local communities first and foremost and today’s budget underlined that commitment.