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Council news  >  Press Releases  >  300508Aberdeen community representatives to tackle poverty issues

Aberdeen community representatives to tackle poverty issues

30/05/08

Leading community representatives from deprived areas of Aberdeen are to present their findings from a poverty consultation to MSP Stewart Maxwell on Monday, 2 June.

The eight representatives, who took part in the consultation in Aberdeen on Tuesday, 27 May, will be travelling to Glasgow to participate in the Tackling Poverty, Inequality and Deprivation in Scotland event.

Mr Maxwell, Minister for Communities and Sport, is to address the event, and there will be tabled discussions about the various issues surrounding poverty, including regeneration, transport, education, health, housing, perceptions of poverty, income levels (including benefits and the tax system), and employment.

The Aberdeen group, which includes representatives of Woodside, Torry, Tillydrone, Northfield, the disabled community, and the Youth Action Committee, has several points to raise.

The group will be presenting the findings of the consultation to Mr Maxwell, and hope to have a face-to-face discussion with him about it.

The Aberdeen delegation will layout to the minister what action they want to see on Poverty in Scotland based on their experiences and knowledge of issues in Aberdeen.

Some of the actions they will be proposing are that:

• Oil companies in Aberdeen should contribute more to the local economy by training and employing local people/young peoples initiatives.
• The Scottish Government should stop focusing on providing information on benefit fraud and start promoting what is available.
• The Government should carry out a review on why the Central Belt gets the biggest cut of funding – the representatives argue that Aberdeen should get equivalent funding per capita.
• They are also challenging a perceived practice of pushing young people into higher education rather than encouraging them to look at training options and to undertake apprenticeships.
• The Scottish Government should lobby the Chancellor to redirect the Bank of England to include housing costs with food costs, etc, when working out inflation.
• The identity card scheme should be scrapped and the money which would have been spent on it should be used instead to benefit the poor.
  

If you have any queries regarding this, or any other news story, please contact Aberdeen City Council on: 01224 522000.