Aberdeen council chiefs say city is being unfairly penalised for rising Covid-19 cases

The co-leaders of Aberdeen City Council claim the city is being unfairly penalised - with blanket coronavirus restrictions being imposed across the whole country.

Last week the first minister confirmed moves to restrict household gatherings - and imposed a 10pm curfew on hospitality venues.

In the seven days between September 21 and 27, a total of 94 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in Grampian - compared with 1,341 in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 475 in Lanarkshire and 403 in Lothian.

Today, 54 new cases have been confirmed in Grampian, with more than 300 in Glasgow and 180 in Lothian.

Last month, Aberdeen was faced with a three-week localised lockdown - which included the closure of all hospitality venues, a five-mile travel limit, and restrictions on meeting other households.

Tighter rules were then imposed on the Glasgow area, but did not include pubs and restaurants, while a travel limit has not been imposed in any of those areas.

Jenny Laing and Douglas Lumsden have written to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, asking for a copy of the findings and recommendations of health officials in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area, following the outbreak there.

They are questioning why the restrictions are needed for the whole country.

Ms Laing said: "We are disappointed that the first minister’s blanket lockdown measures across Scotland are having a disproportionate effect on Aberdeen following the already damaging statutory lockdown imposed on Aberdeen by the Scottish Government.

"The first minister needs to share the incident management team report and recommendations from the Greater Glasgow health board and explain why she chose not to impose a statutory lockdown on Glasgow and surrounding areas, given her course of action has resulted in a huge outbreak of Covid-19 right across Scotland.

"The health and wellbeing of our citizens must always come first and that is why we supported the statutory restrictions imposed on Aberdeen by the Scottish Government back in August 2020, however this was based on known facts.

"The first minister’s failure to consult or provide information to Aberdeen City Council on why her approach to Aberdeen was different from Glasgow is unacceptable."

Mr Lumsden said: "The first minister’s decisions without consultation with councils and her inability to share the Greater Glasgow health board incident management team report and recommendations with citizens of Scotland shows that the first minister's inability to deal with Covid-19 in Glasgow and the surrounding area has impacted on the rest of Scotland.

"If the first minister had lockdown Glasgow like she lockdown Aberdeen, citizens in Scotland would in all probability not have to share the pain of a total Scotland lockdown.

"The citizens of Aberdeen are frustrated that once again they are being denied privileges of seeing loved ones for the next three weeks and maybe longer because the first minister did not lockdown Glasgow.

"Aberdeen citizens deserve better from the first minister and she should at the very least provide the clinical evidence to support her position of a total Scotland lockdown - otherwise citizens will conclude that her decision not to lockdown Glasgow as political."

But Ms Sturgeon has described any claims she is acting politically is "nonsense".

You can view the first minister's response in our video above.

A spokesperson for the first minister told Original 106: "These are utterly disgraceful comments which attempt to politicise the most serious public health emergency Scotland has faced in modern times.

"The first minister is treating the crisis with the seriousness it deserves - it’s time Ms Laing and Mr Lumsden did likewise. The people of Aberdeen deserve no less."