Dawe sent hate mail after MSPs' attack on credibility

Published on Friday 25 February 2011 17:46

COUNCIL leader Jenny Dawe today revealed she had been receiving hate mail after she was branded "not credible" in a damning Scottish Parliament report - and is taking legal advice over the "serious slur" on her character.

&#149 Jenny Dawe faces criticism from Murdo Fraser

She said she and deputy Steve Cardownie had been sent "shame on you" messages and abusive e-mails in the wake of the report from Holyrood's Audit Committee into the controversial Gathering event.

Cllr Dawe said she found it "incomprehensible" that the committee had concluded they were not telling the truth and said she was consulting the council's solicitors.

The committee's report, published earlier this week, criticised contradictory evidence over how a press release came to be issued by the council, wrongly announcing that council-backed tourism body Dema would cover 344,000 worth of debts to private-sector suppliers after the collapse of the company behind the two-day clan gathering in 2009.

More than 100 companies are still out of pocket.

Cllr Dawe said she would be asking the committee to explain its conclusions.

She said: "There is no indication in the report (to explain] why they are saying the four of us were lying. Okay, they don't say 'lying', but saying someone is 'not credible', what does that mean?"

She added: "We will be asking the council solicitor his view on it. I see it as a serious slur on my character."

The committee said Cllrs Dawe and Cardownie, the then-chief executive Tom Aitchison and senior official Jim Inch could not recall what had been said at a crucial meeting to discuss the press release.

Cllr Dawe said: "Would they rather I had made up something and said, 'I absolutely remember seeing that bit of paper and saying no'?

"None of us could remember. We were talking a year after the event. I just cannot understand why they think we were not credible witnesses."

She said she felt "absolutely and utterly aggrieved" at the way the Audit Committee had presented its findings.

"I was not even told there was a report due out," she added. "Steve and I are getting the hate mail and all the rest of it. It's pretty abusive stuff, telling me what I should do with myself."

But Cllr Dawe declared: "I absolutely, categorically, did not lie to that committee and that's basically what they are accusing me of. I find that quite horrific."

The committee's deputy convener, Tory MSP Murdo Fraser, said claims by Cllrs Dawe and Cardownie that the report had been politically motivated were "laughable".

He said: "The leader and deputy leader of the council appear to be in denial.

"It is a disgraceful slur on the work of the committee to accuse it of acting in a party political manner.

"In any event, the accusation is laughable, given that the committee is made up of three SNP members, one Liberal Democrat, one Conservative and three Labour, and the report - including the criticisms - was agreed unanimously and without dissent."