Tuesday February 24th 2026
Photo by Igor Batista (Unsplash)
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
Two Lothian councils today ruled out giving workers a day off to celebrate Scotland’s first appearance in the men’s World Cup in 28 years this summer.
The Scottish Government has declared Monday, June 15, a national bank holiday meaning its employees will be given a day off, however the decision to pass it on has been left to employers including local authorities.
At a meeting of Midlothian Council today, council leader Kelly Parry said the cost of declaring a public holiday, which was estimated by officers at around £130,000 was too high and presented a motion calling on elected members to refuse the day off which was unanimously backed.
Councillor Parry told the meeting: “This would equate to not far off a quarter of a per cent in an additional council tax increase and, I think, given the pressures on households as well as our own budget I don’t think we can justify that amount of funding.
“It also equates to around half our annual budget for cost of living support. I did speak to trade union colleagues about this issue who were very understanding.”
In East Lothian officers recommended councillors refuse the public holiday saying it faced similar costs which they could not support.
SNP group leader Lyn Jardine asked councillors to also approve a review after the event to look into the impact on council services of the game.
She said: “It is an opportunity to strengthen governance. We must be realistic, if Scotland are appearing in the World Cup for the first time in nearly three decades this won’t feel like an ordinary Monday.
“Absences may rise, productivity may dip, schools and services may experience operational strain and pretending otherwise would not be practical.”
She called on a short report to come back to council after the date has passed to help inform future calls for extra days.
Councillor Norman Hampshire however refused to support the amendment and described the decision to give a public holiday on the Monday ‘ludicrous’ pointing out the game kicks off at 2am on Sunday, June 14 and people would already have all of that day to recover from any celebrations.
He said: “It is absolutely ludicrous that they are going to give a public holiday on the Monday for that game. If people want to have a day off on the Monday there are lots of ways thei can take that without this. There is not going to be teems and teems of people absent just because there was a game on the early hours of the Sunday morning.”
And Councillor George McGuire said he was ’embarrassed’ by the Scottish Government declaring the Bank Holiday.
He said: “As a football fan I was embarrassed when the announcement came out. We have achieved nothing. If we go on to win it then that is dreams beyond dreams and might be a consideration but that is for individuals to make up their own minds.”
Councillors voted to refuse the public holiday with no amendment with ten votes to support officers recommendations, nine supporting the amendment and independent councillor Kenny McLeod abstaining.
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