HIGHLAND Council’s leader and his deputy are embroiled in a war of words over the shock decision to axe the north’s police and fire control rooms.
SNP local authority chief Drew Hendry was accused of “spinning” the announcement to try to disguise the “bad news” for the region.
Liberal Democrat deputy council leader David Alston said that although Inverness was in line to host a national major incident unit, it would not compensate for the loss of the city’s 999 centres.
He said: “The way this has been handled is typical of SNP news management and spin.”
But Mr Hendry insisted: “I still believe that this is a good result for the council and its campaigning stance.”
He also played down the prospect of the issue causing a split in the local authority’s SNP-Labour-Lib Dem coalition.
The council’s opposition leader, independent member Carolyn Wilson, said she was “taken aback” by Mr Hendry’s comments on the control rooms.
Scotland’s police and fire boards are likely to rubber-stamp the closures at meetings on Thursday.
