An Aberdeenshire councillor has quit her senior role in the Cairngorm National Park Authority (CNPA) after coming under fire for suggesting a political rival should be strung up from a bridge.
SNP member Geva Blackett is facing a standards investigation after making the remarks towards Tory MP for for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Andrew Bowie, on Twitter.
She has now been forced to tender her resignation as deputy convener of the CNPA.
The organisation’s board convener, Xander McDade, confirmed that an investigation conducted by the body deemed Ms Blackett’s comments a “potential” breach of its code of conduct and referred them to the standards authority.
However, Ms Blackett will retain her seat as a board member.
A comment posted online on July 22 from a Twitter account named “alba_mellon” suggested “dangling” Mr Bowie from Kincardine Bridge.
It has been deleted and police are investigating.
Mr Bowie initially responded to the post by joking that Kincardine Bridge “is about 120 miles from West Aberdeenshire”.
Ms Blackett replied: “There’s always Invercauld Bridge Andrew, never fear”.
Mr McDade said: “Following complaints made to the CNPA in relation to comments published on social media by Geva Blackett, a formal investigation of those complaints was undertaken and the findings of that investigation were considered at a meeting of the CNPA’s audit and risk Committee on Thursday.
“The committee concluded that elements of the code of conduct may have been breached.”