Mr Purcell emerged from the bi-monthly meeting of the steering committee of the 2014 bid to claim that Mr Salmond had let down the whole process by cancelling the Glasgow Airport Rail Link.
Having argued the point in advance over the scrapping of Garl, he arrived at the Scottish Parliament for the latest round of talks determined to make the point about his city losing out in the budget process.
Mr Purcell said: “I was very disappointed. I came here in the hope that we could rebuild the trust that existed between the city and the Scottish Government. At the first moment that I raise the Garl announcement it was made clear by the First Minister that it was not there for debate.”
Mr Purcell claimed that there was an immediate further breach on the upgrading of Dalmarnock Railway Station, which will be close to the Games village.
“I was unable to get an assurance from the First Minister that the Scottish Government will underwrite the European loan for this.”
Councillor Purcell said he had asked a “very specific question twice” on this and it had been passed off onto officials.
“It was a matter for both our officials to discuss.”
A spokesperson for Finance Secretary John Swinney said: “We are committed to the renovation of Dalmarnock Railway Station, which will be great for the Games and great for Glasgow, and Steven Purcell should accept that.
“The Commonwealth Games Federation have already confirmed that the Garl decision has no implications for Glasgow holding the Games in 2014.
“The specific commitment was a dedicated and accessible transport service to the Games village, and that is exactly what will be delivered.
“Fastlink will greatly enhance connections across the city -- including to the Games -- and the key improvements in the Glasgow to Paisley rail corridor are still going
ahead, and these improvements will provide significant improved capacity and performance well ahead of the Games.”
During FMQs the First Minister faced further criticism over the decision to drop the Glasgow Airport Rail Link from budget plans. Labour MSP Des McNulty said the move was of national significance -- in contrast to previous accusations that Glasgow was being unfairly treated by the Scottish Government.
The SNP has rebutted claims of bias by underlining other projects in the city such as the Southern General Hospital and M74 extension.
In Holyrood yesterday, Mr McNulty said: “The M74 extension is not a Glasgow project, it’s Scotland’s top transport priority in the current programme. The Southern General is not purely a Glasgow hospital, it’s a national facility serving the whole of Scotland. And Garl (the Glasgow Airport Rail Link) was not a Glasgow transport project, it’s a project that serves tourism development, economic growth and integrated transport objectives across Scotland.
“Every major city in Europe with a railway and an airport links the two together -- why not Scotland?”
Alex Salmond said last week’s decision was made because of tough economic challenges and spiralling costs.
He added: “If the Finance Secretary had just not addressed the realities of the budget, what would Des McNulty have cut?”
Mr Salmond brushed aside the arguments about Glasgow funding and pointed out the Southern General Hospital and an indoor sports arena would be under threat if Mr McNulty’s argument was followed.
He continued: “I think Des McNulty and the Labour Party had better face reality. There’s more capital projects worthy of Scotland in Glasgow than in any other previous administration in history.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article