I NEED to take issue with the editorial in the Tele on Thursday September 13.

In a story relating to RAAC being found in West College Scotland Greenock’s workshop building, the editorial states that ‘Inverclyde MSP Stuart McMillan has commented today that the UK Government should be paying for repairs at the college because it was built before devolution. The fact is that the college has been allowed to slip into such a state of disrepair on the SNP’s watch — a party that has been in government in Scotland since 2007.’

That is not an accurate reading of the facts – because the fact of the matter is that devolution was pursued as a direct response to the UK Government ignoring and underfunding Scotland for decades.

It is no coincidence that we need a new prison, police station and college which are at least 50 years old. The hospital is nearly 45 years old.

All buildings were inherited by the Scottish Government. Yet, Scotland is given a set budget every year to either build new facilities or invest in the current estate; a budget which in no way reflects the lack of UK Government investment over those many decades before devolution.

So many buildings in Scotland are past their shelf life because of Westminster ineptitude when they were solely responsible for all aspects of Scottish life. The fact the UK Government now have a Levelling Up agenda would be an admittance of previous UK Government failures and lack of investment.

With our capital and revenue budgets cut in real terms and the Scottish Government facing a billion-pound black hole due to the competing pressures of a shrinking budget and rising prices due to sky high inflation, blaming the Scottish Government by saying that the SNP has been in power since 2007, without the full financial levers of any normal country, is naive and a distortion of reality.

If the Scottish Government was able to spend every penny the people of Scotland raised and we were still in this position, the criticism would be much more valid.

Stuart McMillan MSP