The city council will issue a formal apology to former finance convenor Willie Young after wrongly identifying him as the landowner in a political storm involving a £200,000 wall repair paid for by public cash.
A report into the so-called “wallgate” fiasco was discussed by the authority’s audit committee yesterday, where member of the ruling administration agreed the chief executive should issue a letter.
Named named Operation Arthur by the council’s in-house investigations team, the long awaited internal investigation found that council officers had missed multiple opportunities to seek formal approval from councillors and a failure to keep any records of the process.
Council officers approached Mr Young for consent to begin the works at Wellington Brae near his home, funded by cycling charity Sustrans.
But it later emerged the land was actually owned by his father after Mr Young disposed of it more than 20 years ago.
The situation was first revealed in April days before the local elections – at which Mr Young lost his seat, blaming opposition dirty tricks.
But Liberal Democrat group leader Ian Yuill said that he had flagged up the issue weeks before directly to chief executive Angela Scott and questioned why this detail had not been raised in the report.
The report further adds that Mr Young had judged the repair to be “low priority” and had only contacted his solicitors to ascertain land ownership on January 2 after several requests for permission to start the work.
He initially believed the land to be in the possession of his firm Deeview Homes Ltd, which was registered
Last night Mr Young said he had “genuinely forgotten” whose hands the land was in given it had changed ownership between different members of his family so often.
It is now owned by his father David.
He said: “I welcome that the audit committee has agreed for a letter to be sent to me from the chief executive with an apology on behalf of the council.
“Although councillor Yuill raised concerns to her I do not blame Angela Scott for this, this is a failing of the infrastructure directorate.
“I think this does show the need for the council to now outsource their legal team.”
Audit convener Stephen Flynn said many would still feel there were “unanswered questions” and welcomed that the report was being sent to national watchdog Audit Scotland.
He said: “Obviously I’m incredibly disappointed by the actions of the Conservatives in voting that we issue an apology to a former Labour councillor. I don’t think it is necessary.
“There was a lot of inference in the committee about this issue affecting election results but I think that is to gloss over his five year legacy in office.”
