ALEX Salmond faced down his critics yesterday by putting plans for local income tax at the heart of his legislative programme for the next year.

The First Minister brought forward a tranche of 15 bills, including his plan to scrap the council tax and controversial proposals to ban under-21s from buying alcohol from off-sales.

There was also a provision to resurrect plans to incorporate Scotland's main arts bodies into a new organisation, Creative Scotland, and the environment featured strongly, with a Climate Change Bill, setting a target of reducing emissions by 80% by 2050, and a Marine Bill, setting a new set or rules to govern the seas.

A Criminal Justice Bill would bring about more community punishments while making sure serious offenders are dealt with "firmly and effectively" in prison. There would also be a bill to make it more difficult to close rural schools.

Mr Salmond said his agenda met the new aspirations of the Scottish people, but opponents claimed his flagship policies on local taxation and a replacement for private finance remained threadbare.

On the central issue of local taxation, the First Minister was confident that his party was politically in the right, saying: "I have no doubt Scotland will judge harshly any MSP who votes to keep the council tax in the face of the overwhelming benefit that would flow to millions of Scots."

Mr Salmond was setting out the minority government's legislative programme for the coming year.

Replacing the council tax with a local income tax will be the First Minister's biggest challenge, and he laid out the political arguments yesterday why opponents should think again before putting themselves in the position of defending the existing scheme.

The Council Tax Abolition Bill is not likely to appear before 2009. There is no certainty it will reach a Holyrood vote before next autumn.

Labour and the Tories oppose the SNP plan. While the LibDems favour a local income tax, they are against a uniform 3p rate which would apply across Scotland under the SNP proposals.

Mr Salmond told MSPs: "Abolition of council tax will lift 85,000 individuals from poverty and will save the average Scottish family between £350 and £535 a year. I have no doubt Scotland will judge harshly any MSP who votes to keep the council tax in the face of the overwhelming benefit that would flow to millions of ordinary Scots."

Labour said that while it would engage "constructively" on some parts of the legislation, such as the environment, the local income tax plan was damaging and must be dumped.

Acting Labour leader Cathy Jamieson, in the running for the leadership, said: "Alex Salmond says he didn't mind Thatcherite economics. Now he is bringing forward his very own tartan poll tax. Whatever Alex Salmond decides to call them, the SNP's tax plans will simultaneously make Scotland the highest-tax part of the UK and damage local services."

Tory leader Annabel Goldie said the proposed local income tax had been "comprehensively rubbished and ridiculed" in the course of the Scottish Government's own consultation process.

She also attacked the alcohol plans, saying: "Does the First Minister seriously intend to persevere with the ludicrous proposal that a responsible adult aged 20 can buy alcohol in the pub but can't take a bottle of wine home to celebrate the birth of his child?"

New Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott, who had been welcomed into office by Mr Salmond, said: "We want to see the abolition of the discredited council tax. Liberal Democrats want a genuinely local income tax and we look forward to working with the government to deliver that."

Labour leadership contender Iain Gray urged the Scottish Government to ditch flagship policies "for the sake of Scotland's future", urging ministers to rethink the plan to introduce a local income tax. He described this as an "act of sabotage".

Andy Kerr, the third leadership contender, lambasted the SNP's failure to maintain a school-building programme, claiming that the failed attempt to set up a Scottish Futures Trust had wasted years and would condemn children to sub-standard schools.

The plan to set up Creative Scotland will be included in a bill on public services. Ministers attempted to get the plan through parliament in June but lost a vote on the financial aspects of the Creative Scotland Bill when Labour complained it had been misled.

The plan would merge the Scottish Arts Council with Scottish Screen, creating a new body responsible for the arts and establishing it as a company limited by guarantee, which will have a board of directors and a chief executive, by April next year.

It is expected by the Scottish Government that the organisation will be a statutory body by February 2010, once the new Public Services Reform Bill - the vehicle being used to create the arts body - is passed.