Aberdeen’s SNP group has written to Audit Scotland, asking the national body to investigate the Wellington Brae land dispute.
A political row erupted last week after it emerged £200,000 of public money had been allocated for works, including the rebuilding of a wall, on the Ferryhill street without ever being put to a council committee for approval.
Leaked emails showed that council officers had approached Aberdeen City Council finance convener, Willie Young, several times about the project, believing him to be the landowner.
The council has suspended the project and launched its own inquiry.
The nationalists claim they have subsequently obtained legal documents which link the land to a David Young – believed to be Mr Young’s father – and have now called for Audit Scotland to launch a probe.
The Labour Bridge of Don councillor has denied any wrongdoing and has threatened the SNP with legal action.
He produced his own legal advice from the council’s chief legal officer that there had been no “conflict of interest”, based on the evidence he had seen so far.
But last night, SNP group leader Stephen Flynn, who also sits as convener of the council’s audit committee, called on Audit Scotland to intervene in the matter.
The party had previously questioned whether the public could “trust” any investigation which was conducted by the local authority.
Mr Flynn said: “At this stage, the public deserve complete and utter transparency and, for that reason, I have asked for Audit Scotland to launch an investigation.
“Given the fact this matter involves public money, it is absolutely vital we have clear, unambiguous, answers from those involved and the best way to achieve this would be for independent investigators to play a lead role.”
Mr Young said “This is just the latest episode in the SNP’s smear campaign, which is a crude attempt to influence voters ahead of the city council elections on Thursday.
“The council is investigating why officers failed to do the work to identify the owners of the land in question, failed to notify those owners of the intention to do work on Wellington Brae and failed to put the planned work in front of a committee of the council as they are supposed to do. If the chief executive wants external assistance in identifying what went wrong and who was responsible, no doubt she will ask for it.
“In the meantime, the council’s head of legal services has confirmed that I was not involved in the decision by officers to seek grant funding for the project, I was not involved in the decision to commission the works and I have no personal interest in the land in question.
“The SNP are persisting with this smear campaign for one reason only: to divert attention from their complete lack of any policies to put before the voters of Aberdeen in this election, in stark contrast to the positive and forward-looking approach of Aberdeen Labour. It is time to stop the smear campaign, and fight the election on the issues that matter.”
A statement to Mr Young from the council’s head of legal, Fraser Bell, said he was approached “on the basis that the council understood you were the relevant landowner and, as such, you were not representing the council in this matter.”
Mr Bell added: “Based on the above, I do not think you had a conflict of interest to declare.”
An Aberdeen City Council spokesman said: “The fact councillor Young was contacted by council officers as landowner forms part of the ongoing review into the circumstances of the project.”
Councillor Willie Young said “This is just the latest episode in the SNP’s smear campaign, which is a crude attempt to influence voters ahead of the City Council elections on Thursday.
“The Council is investigating why officers failed to do the work to identify the owners of the land in question, failed to notify those owners of the intention to do work on Wellington Brae and failed to put the planned work in front of a committee of the council as they are supposed to do. If the Chief Executive wants external assistance in identifying what went wrong and who was responsible, no doubt she will ask for it.
“In the meantime, the council’s Head of Legal Services has confirmed that I was not involved in the decision by officers to seek grant funding for the project, I was not involved in the decision to commission the works and I have no personal interest in the land in question.
“The SNP are persisting with this smear campaign for one reason only: to divert attention from their complete lack of any policies to put before the voters of Aberdeen in this election, in stark contrast to the positive and forward-looking approach of Aberdeen Labour. It is time to stop the smear campaign, and fight the election on the issues that matter.”
