A furious row broke out between rival councillors last night amid claims the Labour-led administration is using taxpayers’ money to produce a “propaganda” magazine.
Councillors were asked to approve a report which will provide the basis of a 12-page publication, on the “legacy” of the city council since 2012.
The authority plans to send out the final report with council tax letters to households across Aberdeen in the coming months.
However, tensions flared after opposition SNP councillors claimed the report “whitewashed” the Labour-led administration’s record.
The administration have previously defended the A4 magazine and claimed it would document the achievements of the council.
But rival councillors accused them of deliberately leaving out “the bad”, such as the delays to the Diamond Bridge, and using officers to produce propaganda for the administration ahead of May’s local government election.
Former SNP leader Jackie Dunbar put forward an amendment, calling for the legacy report to be “warts and all”.
She said: “I’m a little bit disappointed with the report because I felt that at the last meeting we asked for officers to provide a holistic look at the successes and failures of this committee.”
Party colleague Michael Hutchison shared her views and branded the report “rose-tinted self-promotion”.
This provoked fury from senior members of the administration who accused the opposition of “politicising” the successes of officers.
Tory councillor Alan Donnelly, the finance vice-convener, accused the other side of the table of “insulting the intelligence” of council staff.
He said: “I’m sad at the division, this is politicising the good progress we’ve made, because good news for this committee is bad news for you.”
The SNP’s deputy leader, Graham Dickson, accused Mr Donnelly of launching a “diatribe” against Ms Dunbar and claimed the administration was not interested in learning lessons from the past five years.
He said: “All it seems to me that you’re doing is getting other people to do the work you need for your election campaign.
“This is propaganda to make yourself look better rather than trying to help this council.”
This provoked an angry response from Willie Young who had to withdraw his remarks after he accused Mr Dickson of telling “lie after lie”.
Ms Dunbar’s amendment was ultimately defeated by one vote.
