ABERDEEN City Council’s finance chief has vowed to “do as little as possible” to promote Gaelic while still complying with the law.

Councillor Willie Young is outraged that millions of pounds will have to be spent on a five-year plan for Gaelic street signs and teaching the language to primary schoolchildren.

He said the council would not breach the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 but would spend as little cash as it could get away with to stay within the law.

The Bridge of Don Labour member and finance convener said the law was “legislation gone mad” and accused the Scottish Government of using it to promote independence.

However, the law was brought in under a Labour/LibDem coalition when Jack McConnell was First Minister and the SNP did not take power until 2007.

Young said: “If we have to do everything like redo all the signs it could cost us millions of pounds and it is money we could spend elsewhere.

“The big thing from our point of view is that we could spend our money better, especially when you consider there have been cuts in budgets from the Scottish Government and the Government instructing us to do this is not helpful at this time.

“We should be able to put money where we feel it is needed. It would be different if it was a bottomless pit but it is not.” Aberdeen was the lowest-funded council in Scotland, he said. “We get less than £100million from the Scottish Government, we are the third biggest city, and compare that to Glasgow which gets £600million. Glasgow has just over twice the population as us so we have to manage on a shoestring and Gaelic is not our priority.”

A 62-page document spelling out councils’ obligations calls for street signs and liveries on vehicles to include Gaelic translations, a bilingual logo for the authority to be produced and courses in the language promoted to staff.

Other recommendations include considering teaching Gaelic to primary pupils.

A report prepared for next Wednesday’s full council meeting says: “Aberdeen City Council is committed to supporting the aspirations and objectives included in the National Gaelic Language Plan and the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.

“The last known speaker of Gaelic in the Aberdeenshire dialect, Mrs Jean Bain, of Braemar, died in 1984.”

Young called on local government minister Kevin Stuart not to “be silly” by forcing councils to promote Gaelic.

He said: “We will do as little as possible to promote Gaelic while staying within the law. As to exactly what that is will no doubt be answered by our officers at our council meeting on Wednesday.

“We could say we are not doing it but then we would be in breach of our obligations. Nobody would want to do that but, at the same time, I’ve got more to worry about than putting up Gaelic signs.

“It would be different if people were speaking Gaelic or reading Gaelic all the time but I personally only know one person that can speak Gaelic. There is not a great demand for it in Scotland at all. It is legislation gone mad if you ask me.

“I would say to the minister for local government Kevin Stuart, who is an Aberdeen lad, ‘you have got an opportunity to come back from this and not be so silly in forcing councils to spend money inappropriately’. We all understand you want to see independence but you can promote it in another way that isn’t forcing us to promote a language that unfortunately nobody uses. There are only three pupils in the city studying the language.”

About 35.5 per cent of Aberdeen’s population speak Scots – which includes the north-east’s Doric dialect – compared with 0.8 per cent who are Gaelic speakers.

The aim of the legislation is to make Gaelic an official language of Scotland, “commanding equal respect” with English.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The process around Gaelic Language Plans is managed by Bòrd na Gàidhlig and is set out in the 2005 Gaelic Act. A local authority or a public body will draw up a Gaelic Language Plan when requested by Bòrd na Gàidhlig. The plan should reflect local circumstances.

“The commitments should be proportionate and should be drawn up in agreement between the body or authority and Bòrd na Gàidhlig.”