A senior Aberdeen councillor was last night accused of attacking his own administration after claiming past planning failures which cause city traffic to “grind to a halt” were being repeated.
Conservative Ross Thomson, who is part of the ruling coalition, argued his colleagues should show more “foresight” to ensure the city had a sufficient transport network to cope with its expanding size.
The comments were made as councillors discussed the authority’s proposed local development plan for 2016, which allocates land for tens of thousands of new homes, business parks and local infrastructure.
Mr Thomson, who is vice-convener of finance, policy and resources, turned to social media after failing to win support in the council chamber. He said: “Our city grinds to a halt as councillors of the past failed to future proof city against development. Sadly that attitude demonstrated again today.”
The remarks were pounced upon by the opposition SNP group leader Callum McCaig, who argued it showed a rift in the administration.
He said: “This is a fairly outspoken attack on his own administration and shows Ross Thomson must be frustrated about his own inability to persuade his colleagues to take action on the problems he seems to think exist.
“Clearly there are problems with transport infrastructure in the city, but there is not far off a billion pounds being spent addressing them.
“For me, that is a huge criticism of his own boss, Jenny Laing. I would be interested to know if she agrees – if not, what is she going to do about it?”
Mr Thomson, who is standing as a Westminster candidate for Aberdeen South against long-standing Labour MP Dame Anne Begg, stuck by his comments after the meeting.
He said: “There is concern among the public that we are approving a local development plan, but we don’t have the roads right now and traffic is already gridlocked.
“We are trying to push forward with infrastructure projects now to try and catch up with where we should be because decisions were not taken 30 years. We know these developments are happening, shouldn’t we have a bit more foresight.”
Labour group secretary Willie Young denied there was any division within the coalition. He said: “We have signed an agreement, and this administration will stay strong until 2017. I think we are all frustrated at times with what has happened in the past.”