Angus Council has been urged to keep one eye on Aberdeen as it looks to strike a “city deal” with the rest of Tayside.
The City Deal process began in 2011 as part of the UK Government “localism” agenda, with infrastructure and rebate benefits shared between participants.
One such existing deal, in Glasgow, will provide a £1.13 billion infrastructure fund with the majority paid for by the UK and Scottish governments.
Angus Council has been invited by Dundee City Council to develop a proposal for a Tayside arrangement, along with Perth and Kinross and Fife councils.
The local authority’s policy and resources committee agreed spending £25,000 on a feasibility study, with an additional potential cost of £100,000 at a later date.
While members welcomed the possible benefits of joining up with the rest of Tayside, Brechin councillor Bob Myles said he believes a similar agreement could be struck with Aberdeen City Council because of economic links to north Angus.
Councillor Myles said: “I was under the impression we are also looking at the Aberdeen city deal.
“I think we’re not going to get a huge amount out of the Dundee city deal, or indeed the Aberdeen one, but there would be spin-off from both.
“I think we have to be ready and willing to take any benefit, whether that means that north Angus will look to Aberdeen while the south of Angus goes to the Dundee one.
“The likes of Montrose Port get quite a lot of benefit from Aberdeen, far more than they get from Dundee, for instance.”
Councillors were advised a letter has been sent to Aberdeen City Council’s chief executive, confirming Angus would be open to dialogue on its deal.
Councillor Alex King said it would be advantageous for all of Angus to be part of the Dundee deal, while any additional benefits would be the “icing on the cake”.
Council chief executive Richard Stiff , pictured below, said officers are looking at a “whole Angus” deal with Dundee, but there are cases where one local authority can take advantage of more than one deal.
He said: “There are precedents in pre-existing city deal in Scotland, England and Wales for single-authority areas to be part of two city deals.
“A prime example of that is in the Manchester/Liverpool corridor.
“There are city deals where authority areas are 100% participants in both.”