Meeting of the Parliament 27 April 2017
The water and sewerage charge of around £900 that has gone to St Abbs Community Trust has already been drawn to my attention. From the investigation into the matter that I have done so far, that charge appears to be a direct result of the trust’s excellent efforts to raise funds for the St Abbs lifeboat—funds that did not belong to the trust but which it held and then transferred to the lifeboat trust’s account when that account was set up.
Given those circumstances, I am hugely sympathetic to the situation that the trust finds itself in, and I have this morning instructed my officials to look again at the issue in order to find a solution. I was at the launch of the St Abbs lifeboat, which was a fantastic example of a community coming together to preserve a service that is vital to life in that community. I have looked into the matter and it seems unfair, which is why I have instructed officials to see what they can do to fix it. That is the kind of action that people can expect from an SNP Government.