A north-east councillor has branded his opponents “hypocrites” and accused them of making a political U-turn over plans to raise council tax.
Democratic Independent Green Group member, Martin Ford, launched the attack on Conservative councillor, Jim Gifford, leader of the opposition Alliance group, last night.
Mr Ford said his Conservative counterpart had spent years condemning the SNP government’s freeze on council tax when he was leader of Aberdeenshire Council.
In December 2014, Mr Gifford described the freeze as a “huge problem for the council” which was forcing local budget cuts.
In March 2015, he added the policy left Aberdeenshire “far behind where we could have been if we could have put it up every year”.
But now that councils have the power to increase the levy by up to 3% the Alliance is proposing the status quo. The current SNP-Labour administration in Aberdeenshire is considering a 2.5% increase.
Mr Ford said: “When he was council leader, councillor Gifford regularly blamed the council tax freeze for the council having to make budget cuts – and he was right.”
He accused his opponents of calling for a tax rise when it was not possible, but making a “U-turn” now they had the power to do so.
He added: “At best, it’s pretty inconsistent. The Alliance opposed cuts in services when it knew it couldn’t stop them, but won’t act now it can. This is bound to be viewed as hypocrisy.”
However, Mr Gifford responded last night by arguing his group was protecting residents.
He said: “The difference this year is that, instead of having a council tax freeze imposed on us, we are having – or specifically 42% of our residents are having – a council tax increase imposed on us.
“We have chosen not to inflict further tax rises on people who are already going to be paying between 7.7% more on band E houses and 23.1% more on band H houses.”
Aberdeenshire councillors will meet at Woodhill House on Thursday to debate proposals to increase council tax as part of a £540million budget.