Leading British producer Iain Smith (Wanted, Children Of Men) has announced his resignation from the joint transitional board of Scottish Screen and Creative Scotland.

Smith has explained that his resignation was prompted by a sense of frustration at the on-going process of merging Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council into a new government body with a remit that covers all the arts in Scotland.

The establishment of the new body,entitled Creative Scotland, has been fraught with controversy. Various filmmakers have expressed concern that film will become less of a priority in the new body whilst politicians have bristled at reports of mushrooming costs attached to the transition.

The recent appointment of Mike Russell as culture ministerhas lent an added urgency to the establishment of the delayed Creative Scotland which was originally intended to come into existence early in 2009.

'I have resigned from frustration, and a sense that the board of which I was a member is just marking time, is no longer looking to the future, and is not in control of its own actions,' Smith has said. 'The urgency to get Creative Scotland together as quickly as possible, and the concern for a need for speed, will come at the cost of proper outcomes.'

Smith had served on the Scottish Screen board since 2003.

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