Top trio miss out as council is forced into Saturday meeting

Published on Saturday 8 September 2007 11:53

A BITTER row has broken out over a decision to hold an emergency meeting of the city council next Saturday - when the top three officials will be absent.

Labour and the Greens demanded the meeting to discuss the U-turn by the Liberal Democrat-SNP administration over its plans to close 22 schools and four community centres.

The date was chosen by Lib Dem Lord Provost George Grubb, but it has now emerged council chief executive Tom Aitchison will miss the meeting because of his daughter's wedding. And director of corporate services Jim Inch and finance director Donald McGougan cannot be there either.

The Lib Dems and SNP are accusing Labour of wasting time by insisting on an emergency meeting when a normal full council meeting is planned days later.

But Labour has hit back at the administration for choosing a date when the senior officials are unavailable.

Former Lord Provost Eric Milligan said: "I am absolutely flummoxed. I've never known anything like it.

"To be summoned to a meeting on a Saturday is one thing, but then to find that the chief executive, director of corporate services and the finance director will be unable to attend is quite astonishing. The first thing the Lord Provost should have done was to make sure that the senior officers would be there."

Labour group leader Ewan Aitken said Mr Aitchison's reason for not being at the meeting was "more than legitimate", but said the administration could have called the meeting for any day after September 6.

"If they had any sense they would have had the meeting as soon as possible. Instead, they put it off and have now chosen an awkward time," he said.

He insisted Labour was right to call the meeting. "There is no clarity about what is happening with the schools," he said. "People are asking us 'Is this just a stay of execution?' and we don't know."

But Lib Dem leader Jenny Dawe said there was little choice about the date of the meeting.

She said: "They put in their request to John Sturt, the council secretary, and he got back to the Lord Provost and copied it to me, saying there were few potential dates.

"If Labour don't like the idea of meeting on a Saturday, they have only themselves to blame. They know what the council diary looks like. It's absolutely jammed with all sorts of committees, many of which involve people coming in from outside.

"And given we have a lot of councillors who work full-time and it is difficult to get time off, at the end of the day the least damaging seemed to be Saturday."

She said the other possible dates had been this Thursday - which would have meant cancelling two committees - Sunday or Holiday Monday.

Councillor Dawe added: "It is ridiculous they are doing this. There is a full meeting on the Thursday, but Labour refused to withdraw their request."

And SNP leader Steve Cardownie said Labour's insistence could not be justified.

He said: "This is a stupid decision by Labour. There is no need for it. They are just trying to make political capital out of it."

A council spokesman said

: "The availability of the room and other factors meant there were very limited options."