AN ESTIMATED 2,000 people marched through the centre of Aberdeen on Saturday in protest at massive cuts in council services.

A £27m reduction in council spending has hit schools, sports facilities and services for the disabled.

Members of the SNP-LibDem administration who attended the rally were jeered as they attempted to pin the blame on the previous administration.

Among the groups demonstrating was homelessness charity Aberdeen Cyrenians, which says that a £900,000 budget cut means it has to sack a quarter of its staff.

Aberdeen Ice Hockey Club was also protesting about the closure of the city’s ice rink.

The leader of Aberdeen Council, Lib Dem councillor Kate Dean, said: “We would not have had to make these cuts if we had a fairer funding settlement from the Government for Aberdeen – we need the funding formula changed.

Thousands of Scots carers have been forced to give up their jobs as a legal anomaly leaves them with fewer safeguards than their counterparts south of the border.

A new Maggie’s Centre for cancer patients and their relatives is to open in Lanarkshire. The interim facility will be based at Wishaw General Hospital until a dedicated service at Monklands Hospital is built.

A £250,000 target has been set to support kinship carers in Dumfries and Galloway for the year ahead.

Two private care institutions were criticised yesterday by a watchdog for failing to meet government standards.

New guidance on services for people with autism has been published by the Scottish Government.

The closure of Glasgow’s “warehouse” style homeless hostels marks a new beginning for homelessness services in the city, Communities Minister Stewart Maxwell said today.

The two boys and a girl were forced into young offenders’ institutions, which normally house adults aged 16 to 21, following the closure of the country’s biggest secure unit for children after a weekend riot.

A CARE home exposed by a Record investigation for abusing elderly residents is to close. Davenport Nursing Home has such an appalling reputation and is in such a poor state of repair that residents are rejecting offers to go there.

STAFF at a riot-hit secure unit say management are risking their lives by being soft on the child inmates. Two dangerous teenagers went on the run after the latest outbreak of rioting, in which workers were slashed and battered.

Staff say police were only called after six hours of mayhem on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

By then, they claim, the rioters had set fire to rooms at the unit, St Mary’s Kenmure in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow.

Ten teenagers had broken out, although eight were caught. A ninth was being held by police last night and is expected in court today.

One worker said yesterday: “It’s supposed to be like Colditz for kids. But it’s more like Castle Chaos. The way things are going, it’s only a matter of time before someone is killed.”

The worker added: “We are dealing with murderers and rapists and yet we are expected to treat them with kid gloves.