Opposition politicians in Aberdeen have called on senior Labour members to step down as the political fall-out from the resignation of the local authority’s top official continued yesterday.
The SNP will seek a vote of no confidence in leader Barney Crockett and finance convener Willie Young at May’s full council meeting.
The Nationalists and Liberal Democrats have argued that chief executive Valerie Watts’ decision to quit the city and take up a new post in Northern Ireland was partly driven by the behaviour of the ruling coalition.
But Labour leaders insisted their record would stand up against that of the previous council, while Conservative group leader Fraser Forsyth said the pair had his full support.
SNP group leader Callum McCaig said: “The positions of Willie Young and Barney Crockett have been widely viewed as being untenable following their calamitous attempts to run the council, and it would appear that their actions have played a part in the council losing a first-class chief executive.
“Allowing these two to remain in their posts will just damage the city of Aberdeen. Why the Labour party, both nationally and locally, are allowing this to continue is beyond me.”
Mr Young last night rejected any suggestion of leaving his post. He said: “If the SNP really felt that they have no confidence in myself or Barney, then they would be calling a special council meeting.
“I would put our record against theirs any day of the week – we had 3,000 people marching down Union Street in protest at £120million in cuts under the last administration.”
The two-man Tory group holds the balance of power in the council chamber, but Mr Forsyth said he was “totally confident” that the administration was heading in the right direction.
He said: “We are moving forward for the city, we are getting on with delivering the SIP (Strategic Infrastructure Plan), we are engaging with the master-planning process for the city centre, there are the plans for the new AECC happening as well.
“It would be a lot easier without the bad headlines but that is part and parcel of what we are trying to do here.”
A meeting of the council’s urgent business committee will be held at the earliest opportunity to begin the process of recruiting a successor to Mrs Watts.