A commemoration of Scottish icon William Wallace taking place in Aberdeen this weekend has sparked a political row.
SNP and Labour members have clashed after organisers wrote to all members of the local authority’s finance, policy and resources committee.
Councillors voted to refuse an application for £2,500 in grant funding towards the cost of the public event in May.
Organisers the Wallace 700 Association said they have been seeking a meeting with convener, Willie Young, ever since.
SNP members of the committee claimed Mr Young moved for rejection of the bid on the basis that the Wallace group was promoting a Yes vote in September’s referendum.
The Labour councillor, however, has denied making any such comments.
Official minutes from the meeting do not record a reason for the decision to refuse the grant.
The Wallace 700 group marked the 700th anniversary of the death of the patriot in 2005. The event was subsequently brought under the umbrella of the city’s Tartan Day celebrations in 2007, moving from August to July.
However, Aberdeen City Council cancelled Tartan Day last year, to be replaced by Aberdeen Day.
This year, the Wallace Day Commemoration ceremony will go ahead on Saturday without council financial backing, but Wallace 700 secretary John Mackay said he was disappointed at the way in which the matter was handled.
He has insisted the group, which has a board of trustees including former Labour Lord Provost Margaret Farquhar and prominent Conservative supporters, is non-political.
In a letter to Mr Young, he adds that “at no time” was there any political material coming from the group.
SNP group spokesman Graham Dickson said Mr Young should “apologise”.
He said: “I think councillor Young deliberately misled the committee by claiming that this group was in any way involved with the Yes campaign.
“He said clearly in his reasoning that he thought they were supportive of the Yes campaign based on a false claim that they had information about the referendum on their website, which they clearly did not.”
Mr Young added: “First of all, this is garbage. I never said anything about that.
“We said no because we didn’t think it was a good use of public money, bearing in mind they were going to be joining up with Tartan Day, and there would be more road closures. There was nothing sinister.
“But it is interesting the SNP are promoting it because they obviously do think it is about a Yes vote.”