FIFE Trades Union Council and the joint unions from Fife Council held a very productive first meeting in Lochgelly with MSPs and agreed that it was a good way to look at how funding can be channelled into local services.

The meeting was called by the Trades Council, to discuss the fact that with the Westminster budget not due until March 11th, any budgets issued between now and then are only really 'draft' and the Scottish Government will have to make assumptions over the block grant coming to Scotland.

Chairman of the Trades Council, Benarty man Tam Kirby, said that the Johnson Government made great promises during the General Election over the levels of funding for the NHS and public services and people would expect him to ensure this year that the additional funding promised, is indeed made available.

To that end the discussions still have a relevance as any additional funding from Westminster will then have to be added into the mix.

He added that they did not want the meeting to be an argument over who has cut what from whom, but a constructive discussion on how they can work together to achieve the best outcome for the local communities.

Tam Kirby said, “Our view is that any budget increase cannot be just a one year fix and we need to have dialogue over future budgets and the needs of our local communities and the services they rely on.

"We have witnessed 10 years of underfunding for all our local services and this needs to be addressed.”

He added: “We are calling for any additional funding to come to our local public services and the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, to reverse the cuts they had have had to endure.

“I think the discussion we had was very productive and I would like to thank the MSP’s for their attendance and input”

It was agreed that they would meet again after the Westminster budget

MSP’s in attendance were, Annabelle Ewing, Alex Rowley, Murdo Fraser, Jenny Gilruth, Claire Baker and David Torrance.

Mark Ruskell, Liz Smith and Willie Rennie, who had other long standing commitments, but are interested in attending any future meetings.

Unite the Union, GMB, Unison, EIS and Fife People’s Assembly were all represented.