Edinburgh's education chief forced to apologise over 'dreadful' text to senior councillor during budget speech

Alistair Gaw has apologised to Alison Dickie following the incident

Edinburgh’s most senior education chief was forced to apologise after accidentally sending a text meant for another person openly criticising one of the city’s most senior councillors, the Evening News can reveal.

SNP councillor, Alison Dickie, who is the vice-convener of the education, children and families committee, was speaking at the council budget meeting and giving a passionate speech about how she had fought hard against the latest round of council cuts to schools in the Capital.

After sitting down, she discovered a text on her phone from Alistair Gaw, the council’s executive director of communities and families and most senior education official, stating: “Alison on a dreadful rant”.

Alistair Gaw (left) sent Alison Dickie (right) a text accusing her of going on a "dreadful rant"

In a letter addressed to SNP colleagues at the council, Cllr Dickie is understood to have raised concerns about the text, wanting to know who the intended recipient was, as well as holding concerns about a serious attempt to undermine her.

It is understood that Cllr Dickie has been asking serious questions of the council’s children’s services, particularly around controversial and high profile cases including the Derek Curran case and John Travers whistleblower case.

Mr Curran received £10,000 from the council when he won an unfair dismissal case after being fired over being accused of having an affair with an underage girl and fathering a child with her in 2014, before being dismissed in 2015.

Cllr Dickie has also pushed for answers connected to Mr Travers’ case, who claimed he was victim of a ten-year campain of intimidation after he made claims of misspent funds at a council-owned arms-length firm.

One council insider said the questions would rather be swept under the carpet, something Cllr Dickie is unwilling to do. They said: “Alison has been asking a lot of difficult questions about things which many people at the council would rather see just go away.

“This has got a lot of backs up, but she has been determined to get to the bottom of some very big issues. What could be more important than child protection?”

When asked about the letter to colleagues and the text, Cllr Dickie said she had received an apology from Mr Gaw about the incident.

She said: “I can confirm that I have since received a written apology and formally discussed this incident and the wider issues concerned.

“I have been reassured that I will be fully supported in my representative role in the way forward.”

Andrew Kerr, chief executive at the council, added that the council will now be looking at the way forward rather than returning to the issue.

He said: “Alistair has apologised to Cllr Dickie which has been accepted and the focus is now on the way forward.”

Cllr Dickie unsuccessfully ran for the Edinburgh Central constituency seat at Holyrood in 2016, losing Marco Biagi’s seat to a resurgent Tory pary and Ruth Davidson by just 610 votes. She has been a councillor since 2017.

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