A pressure group set up to scrutinise government spending is to open its first Scottish branch, in Aberdeen.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance said it needed a presence in the north-east because of the “profligacy” of the region’s public bodies.
It wants the public to join its “fight against high taxes and wasteful spending within the city’s public services”.
Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliot said: “I’m delighted that we’re launching our first Scottish branch and hope that members of the public will be keen to get involved.
“The Aberdeen branch will be calling for lower taxes, keeping an eye on how our money is spent, and speaking out when it’s wasted by government bodies or politicians.
“The track record of public spending in the city certainly seems to reveal a need for this local group”.
The outspoken body said a number of recent high-profile issues had influenced it.
They included Aberdeen City Council’s “stupidest ever” blunder, which saw a block of garages built that were too small for drivers to get out of their cars.
At the time, deputy council leader Kevin Stewart said: “This is one of the stupidest things I have ever come across in my entire time at the council.”
The lord and lady provost of Aberdeen spending £10,000 of taxpayers’ money on clothes has also irked the alliance.
It is also angry at Grampian Police for paying suspended officers £798,000, and NHS Grampian for spending £137,000 on sex-change operations.
City man Dennis Grattan, of Mugiemoss Road, will be the alliane’s Aberdeen co-ordinator and will run the branch from his home.
“I’ve had quite enough of paying taxes year after year only to see the money squandered by bungling politicians in the four levels of government we have in Scotland, making Scotland the most expensive democracy in Europe,” said Mr Grattan.
“Apart from voting every four years there is little else a taxpayer can do apart from joining with the TaxPayers’ Alliance who fight for justice by exposing waste and inefficiency in government.
“I’ve decided to form an Aberdeen branch to help expose the colossal waste that has been evident in the north-east and hope that many will join in to fight for the weary taxpayer,” added the north-east’s co- ordinator.
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