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An MSP’s “attempt to spin” council job figures has been branded shameful.

Holyrood politician Joan McAlpine claimed the council had increased its staff numbers by 472 between January and November last year.

But the Scottish Government’s own figures show that the number of posts at the council dropped by 324 between December 2015 and December 2016.

Council leader Ronnie Nicholson said: “This attempt to twist and spin selected figures to mislead the public is truly shameful.

“It gives me no pleasure to point out that both the council and the Scottish Government’s own figures for the past year show the number of people employed by the council has fallen by 324, due to cuts.

“Either she didn’t know that an existing member of staff matched to a new job description is included in the figure for recruitment, or she does know and is choosing to deliberately misinform the public.”

Ms McAlpine, of the SNP used voluntary redundancy and figures for recruitment, taken from a Freedom of Information request, to say that staff numbers had increased.

The figures did not take into account existing staff placed in a new role, seasonal workers who left a post before the end of the

year, retirements or those leaving to take up alternative employment.

She said: “Ever since last year’s budget the Labour council leadership has tried to frighten people with threats of huge job losses at the council.

“But these numbers show this simply isn’t the case – and in fact staff recruitment increased. It’s great news that there has not been a single compulsory redundancy.”

A council spokesman said: “The claim made by Joan McAlpine that the council has increased staff by 472 is absolutely incorrect.

“The council is trying to find £20 million of savings for next year. This is on top of the £52 million we have already saved since 2012.

“This was managed through a number of measures including rationalising jobs, vacancy management and reducing staff costs.”