An Aberdeenshire councillor has fought off an attempt to oust him from a senior position on the cross-council planning body.
Aberdeen City councillors came to the defence of Liberal Democrat Peter Argyle after a motion to remove him from his post as chairman was brought forward at the Aberdeen City and Shire Strategic Development Planning Authority (SDPA) meeting yesterday.
Chairman of Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee (ISC), David Aitchison, had lodged the bid to replace him as head.
The SNP Westhill and district councillor said it was “protocol” that the position be held by a member of the council’s ruling administration and chairman of the ISC.
Mr Argyle was at the helm of the ISC until June when the local authority’s SNP group teamed up with the Progressive Alliance and the Democratic, Independent and Green group to takeover from the Tory and Lib Dem-led Aberdeenshire Alliance.
Speaking at the meeting in Woodhill House yesterday, Mr Aitchison pointed out: “We are in a position now where councillor Argyle is no longer chair of the ISC or a part of the administration”.
He added this was “inappropriate in terms of Aberdeenshire Council’s position” on the SDPA.
Stonehaven and district Lib Dem councillor, Peter Bellarby, said Mr Argyle could only be replaced if he was “not doing this job properly and was incompetent” – adding this was “emphatically not the case”.
He said: “It is bringing party-politics into something apolitical.”
However Banff councillor John Cox argued there should be “a direct link to the chair of this organisation” and the administration of Aberdeenshire.
Aberdeen Labour councillor Ross Grant said: “I think the SDPA is a forum where we can reach agreement in a grown-up way. I think there is a more adult, grown-up way of doing this.”
Councillor for Kincorth, Nigg and Cove, Andrew Finlayson, brought forward an amendment to withdraw the motion, and was backed by seven votes to four.
The SDPA is made up of 12 councillors – six from Aberdeenshire and another six from Aberdeen City Council.
The chairman post is swapped between the local authorities every two years.
Following the vote Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside councillor Mr Argyle said: “That is the first time I think we have had a vote in the SDPA. I am very sad it was on this basis.
“I am very pleased that SDPA colleagues voted by a strong majority not to remove me from the chair.
“The suggestion that a change of administration automatically means a change in non-political bodies such as this is misguided.
“We must now put this political issue behind us and move forward as positively as we have always done.”