Gaffe puts city out of the picture

The in-house print run has caused anger amid opposition councillors, particularly as the offending image, which appeared to be a five-year-old picture of Haddington Farmers Market, also features Lib Dem election posters

Jason Rust, the Conservative councillor for the city's Colinton/Fairmilehead ward, pointed out the "embarrassing mistake" in the local authority's Our City, Our Future, Help Us Decide circular.

He said: "Someone should take responsibility for it.

"This is symbolic of (the administration's] approach to the budgetary process.

"They are talking about making efficiency savings but that's the best part of 1000 wasted on this. No wonder people have a lack of confidence in the process."

And Mr Rust questioned why the image appeared on one of the few pages discussing investment rather than cuts. He said: "It's a bit concerning the council are referring to investing in our city yet showing photographs of other local authority areas. It's interesting the page where the picture was (on] one of the few pages talking about investment.

"This is a council-funded publication and should not be used for political purposes."

A council spokesman said in a statement that the image used on page seven of the leaflet had been "uploaded in error" to the council's internal photo library and "has now been removed".

He added: "The leaflet is not being reprinted, however, the image has been taken out of the online version." The mistake comes just days after the city's first "budget summit" was branded a "sham" by many residents.

"Taxpayers were invited to meet councillors and officials to debate and vote on preferable service cuts in order to make 90 million of savings over the next three years.

Complaints were raised about the scope of eight questions posed on potential cuts with 90 per cent voicing their dissatisfaction in a straw poll taken at the end of the process.

Council chiefs admitted that future summits may concentrate more fully on debates with the public.