INVERCLYDE Council’s leader has expressed his extreme disappointment after a £70million package of projects drawn up by a local socio-economic task force failed to secure a single penny of funding.

Council leader Stephen McCabe, who is one of the task force’s two co-chairs, told his colleagues at a recent full council meeting that the Inverclyde Task Force did not have a long-term future.

The working group was set up in 2022 following discussions between then finance secretary Kate Forbes and councillor McCabe with the aim of addressing inequalities in Inverclyde.

OTHER NEWS: Controversial plans to build at Cornalees is put on hold

Despite having ministerial support from the Scottish Government, the task force has failed to bring in any specific funding to help tackle these issues in Inverclyde.

Councillor McCabe told his fellow elected members at a recent meeting that Inverclyde still had huge issues to address and urged them to use whatever influence they had to lobby for the Scottish and UK Governments to funnel more money into the area.

He said: “I’m extremely disappointed as one of the chairs of the task force that to date we haven’t secured any specific funding.

He continued: “The reality is that we’re facing significant challenges.

"This task force was established to help us address the economic and social challenges we were facing in 2022 and the support was there.

"In fact it was Kate Forbes’ idea to establish the task force when she was the finance secretary and so far it has singly failed to secure a single penny of funding from the Scottish Government.

“We have a huge issue here of a haemorrhage of jobs from our community and we really need both governments to stand up and be counted and support us.”

Councillor McCabe said that he had raised the issue of Inverclyde-specific investment at the task force’s latest meeting, highlighting the interventions the two governments have made following the recent announcement that Scotland’s only oil refinery in Grangemouth was to close by next summer.

He added: “I made reference to the recent closure of the refinery at Grangemouth and the fact that both the UK and the Scottish Government have responded to that with £100m funding, recognising not just the impact on the direct workforce but the wider economy and wider community.

“I made the point forcibly at the task force meeting that we’ve lost over 1,200 jobs.

“People might question the quality of the jobs versus jobs in an oil refinery but 1,200 is as important if not more important as 400 jobs at Grangemouth to be perfectly honest.

“It is really disappointing that we haven’t secured any funding."

In August last year, the Inverclyde Task Force drew up a £70m package of proposals aimed at sparking the revitalisation and regeneration of Inverclyde.

These included plans for Kelburn Business Park and the creation of an investment zone, as well as skills training and fiscal powers for Inverclyde.

But council officers say that no money has been put forward for these projects.

While the council has been handed sums of cash from UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, the Levelling Up Fund and the Towns Fund, officials have highlighted the fact that none of these interventions are specific to the area.

And Councillor McCabe has now stressed the need for more cash to help Inverclyde, particularly in light of recent job losses.

He said: “I know and I understand and I’m sure we all appreciate that public finances are particularly stretched at this point in time, but we’ve been at this for two years now.

“It was a year ago that we made representations, we’ve had funding allocated for many good causes in terms of economic regeneration in the last 12 months and as I say in terms of Grangemouth funding can be found to respond to that, funding needs to be found to help us address these issues. “