'All councillors' are responsible

Ms Dean said she was determined to improve the situation in Aberdeen

Every councillor in Aberdeen is responsible for the current problems facing the city's local authority, its leader has said.

Kate Dean's comments came after public sector watchdog the Accounts Commission found the council had extremely serious financial and management issues.

The Scottish Government has told Aberdeen City Council it must resolve the problems within its own means.

Ms Dean told BBC Scotland she believed the situation could be turned around.

The council, run by a Liberal Democrat-SNP coalition, is currently pursuing a programme of �27m in cutbacks which has led to several weeks of public protests.

But Ms Dean told BBC Scotland's Politics Show the administration was working to ensure people most in need of vital services would receive them and was already taking action in the wake of the highly critical report.

Step away

She said she had accepted the Account Commission's findings, which included appointing an independent financial expert to oversee savings.

"I think every councillor in Aberdeen is responsible for the situation that we're in now," she said, adding: "The team that I lead are not only accepting the responsibility but are wishing to stay in place to see this through."

The council leader went on: "It would have been awfully easy to have stepped away from this. It would have been very much easier to have left it behind.

"But I think what we're showing here as an administration is our determination that we are in this for the long-term and we're here to fix what's going on at the moment."

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