Commenting on the news that Labour Leader of Glasgow City Council Steven Purcell would sacrifice free school meals to pay for the Glasgow Airport Rail Link, Glasgow SNP Leader of the Opposition James Dornan said: "Councillor Purcell’s obsession with the Glasgow Airport Rail Link now appears to have blinded him to reality.

"As Leader of Glasgow City Council Councillor Purcell has a responsibility to ensure that those children living in Glasgow are educated, safe and healthy. If you give pupils free school meals they are likely to be more aware in class, thus improving their educational chances, make them more likely to stay within the school boundaries during lunchtimes, ensuring their safety and of course you will have some say in their dietary intake, improving their health.  Compare this to the GARL Project which does none of these things and whose benefits to the city are limited at best.

"Councillor Purcell should recognise the by-election is over and go back to doing the best he can for the citizens of Glasgow. Stealing food from the mouths of Glasgow’s school children to pay for one and half miles of railway is, quite simply, deluded."

Note:

Councillor Purcell was speaking at the State of the City Economy event in Glasgow today, Friday 20th November 2009.