Largs councillor Tom Marshall has welcomed council investment in the North Coast ‘for the first time for many years’ but outlined his concerns about the loss of more than 100 teaching positions.

Speaking at last week’s budget meeting, the Conservative councillor, pictured here, said the UK government had failed to balance its books for many years, leading to a large deficit and the resulting need to cut costs.

He said: “The SNP government has exacerbated the problems for councils. In the last five years, real term expenditure on health has increased by 6%. Whereas spending on councils has decreased by 9%.

“This has a huge effect. Added to that, the council tax freeze has resulted in the prospect of more severe cuts than necessary. This has been exacerbated by the decision to fund so many free universal benefits without any means testing.

“This is a budget soley designed by the SNP for the SNP.” The former maths teacher said: “It cannot be argued that proposed removal of over 70 (6%) teachers from classrooms will improve attainment.

“If North Ayrshire is ‘the place to be’ then educational standards must improve.

“For many young people the well paid jobs of the future require high levels of skills in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. This demands well-qualified teachers in maths and science even in the primary schools.

“Removal of staff is not the answer “Aspiring parents who want their children to get to a good university are seeking the gold standard of achieving 5 highers. Only 10% of our pupils gain 5 highers compared to East Renfrewshire’s 50%. Offering a poorer education also means that North Ayrshire is a less desirable place to live – witness the fact that average house prices are half of those in East Renfrewshire .

“We certainly do not improve by cutting teacher numbers.

“The leftwards march of the SNP with Nicola Sturgeon’s proposals for greatly increased stamp duty, an increased top rate of income tax and a land and property tax that Karl Marx would be proud of, is just going to hit the aspiring middle classes and initiate a class war in the countryside.

“On the other hand, the Conservative-led UK government policies have ensured that the economy is the most stable in Europe, has the fastest growth in the G7 nations, has low unemployment, and record levels of employment.”