Councillors have clashed over the £120,000 public cost of the annual Hogmanay party in Inverness.
Liberal Democrats were accused yesterday of being party poopers after criticising the expense.
Recently elected Lib Dem group leader Alasdair Christie praised the city’s regular Halloween and Highland Games events.
However, wary of the council’s unprecedented budget crisis – with a newly revised savings target of £41million for 2016-17 – he questioned the logic of blowing that much of the city’s common good fund on an event lasting just a few hours.
“One thing that does concern me and worry me,” he said, “is that we invest so much in one evening of the year, at Hogmanay, when over £120,000 is invested in one event.
“I wonder if we should now be looking at whether we can attract major corporate sponsorship to take away the burden from the common good fund for funding something that lasts five or six hours, and see whether we could utilise that money for more medium sized or smaller events to create an all-year-through push for events.
“It does worry me in times of austerity.”
Councillor Glynis Sinclair, chairwoman of the city’s events and festivals working group, leapt to its defence while slating the “negativity” of the Lib Dems.
“For that spend,” she said, “Inverness as a whole, with bed nights and profitability in economics in the city centre, is coming back ten-fold. (sic) And that has already been the subject of an economic impact assessment.
“We’ve had several of these done which proves that. It’s the cheapest marketing tool that this council has got to promote Inverness as a whole. I think it’s value for money.”
She added: “Quite a number of years ago, it was mooted by the working group that perhaps we charge for Hogmanay. Councillor Christie was one of the members who was absolutely adamant that we should not charge.”
The Hogmanay event in the Highland capital has regularly attracted crowds of around 12,000 people.
Council leader Margaret Davidson suggested that the events and festival group should be proud of its record of “connecting with the local community.”