The leader of Angus Council has rejected figures showing Carnoustie has been the poor relation as regards spending over the last 14 years.
The figures, obtained under freedom of information legislation, show the town has had an average of £930.72 spent for each person since 1996 around 18p per head a day.
That figure works out at an average of just £66.48 spent per person each year, around three time less than Montrose which had the greatest spend in the region on £207.15.
The totals per head per year for other towns included £154.44 in Forfar, £137.54 in Brechin, £114 in Kirriemuir, £90.89 in Monifieth and £83.25 in Arbroath.
Over the last seven years, Brechin is the only town in the region to have had less spent per head than Carnoustie.
Councillor Bob Myles said statistics did not necessarily reflect the amount spent on projects such as schools and argued people in Angus benefit from spending outside their town.
“We try to spend our budget throughout the whole county in the areas where it is most needed,” he said.
“If you provide services for any area such as Carnoustie or Montrose it will be more than just the residents of those towns who use those services.”‘Total outrage’SNP opposition leader and Carnoustie councillor Helen Oswald said figures for the last 14 years did not include the dualling of the A92 or the building of several schools in the Carnoustie area.
She said, “I think the lack of funding for Carnoustie is a total outrage.
“We have been trying to get funding for a business park in the north end of the town and despite the best effort of the SNP the Angus Alliance have continued to vote against it.”
She added, “Montrose is about to have between £10 and £11 million spent on a swimming pool, but we still can’t have a business park for Carnoustie, which is something that is desperately needed to keep employment in the town.”
The figures were unearthed by Carnoustie independent by-election candidate Brian Boyd, who is upset at the town’s lack of funding.
He said, “I was hoping to see if this situation had improved but sadly for Carnoustie it hasn’t and if you add the figures together we are firmly at the bottom of the league, with some towns getting three times as much spent on them per head than Carnoustie.
“I was not surprised by the figures because when you see our high street, the lack of facilities in the town with no civic centre and the shelving of the business park, clearly Carnoustie is not getting its fair share.”