Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Official Report 704KB pdf

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Point of Order

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. In his winding-up speech in the debate on regeneration, Alex Neil accused me of misinforming the Parliament about the Scottish Government’s involvement in the issue of Cumbernauld’s high-rise flats. Can I advise Parliament that I in no way misled members? I have before me the document “cumbernauld towers project” that was jointly published by the Scottish Government, Cumbernauld housing partnership and North Lanarkshire Council. Let me read the comment to which I referred:

“The Scottish Government, Cumbernauld Housing Partnership and North Lanarkshire Council believe that the demolition and new build option is the best long-term solution to the problems within the flats, and this is the only option for which public funding is available.”

The Government signed up to that document. I did not mislead Parliament, so I would like to ask Mr Neil to withdraw his statement.

As the member is probably aware, that is a debating point rather than a point of order for me. She now has the matter on the record, so it will be up to the minister to respond if he thinks it appropriate to do so.