Council bosses have laughed off claims a Gaelic language plan is being imposed to turn all north-east residents into nationalists.
The SNP-led Aberdeenshire Council coalition yesterday backed plans to spend thousands of pounds to promote Scotland’s mother tongue after a ferocious committee row.
Public body Bord na Gaidhlig sparked outrage earlier this year when they demanded the council foot a £305,488 bill to implement proposals including hiring a Gaelic language officer and installing “bilingual” road and council signs.
Opposition councillors called for the administration to ignore the demands and risk financial penalties from the Scottish Government.
The policy became a political football as local people called for local dialect Doric to be given priority, and the plan was kicked between committees until a final decision was made by a meeting of full council yesterday.
Co-leaders Richard Thomson and Martin Kitts-Hayes proposed a compromise deal worth around £15,000 – a move which was backed following a ferocious row between councillors.
Conservative councillor and opposition leader Jim Gifford said: “It’s an absolute piece of nonsense. It’s a ridiculous diktat from the Scottish Government.”
Mr Gifford said although councillors did not oppose the preservation of Gaelic, it was wrong for money to be allocated from an already stretched council budget.
Fellow Tory councillor and former Provost Jill Webster poured fuel on the fire in her speech to the chamber, describing the policy as “farcical”.
“This is just an example of SNP symbolism,” she said. “The SNP needs to get a grip of what matters to the people of the north-east – education, health, the police.”
She demanded to know why the administration was funding Gaelic while 13,000 people are on a waiting list of new council houses.
But Mr Kitts-Hayes hit back and said: “The Tories think this is some secret plan to introduce Gaelic and turn us all into nationalists.
“We don’t have a licence to say ‘hey ho, stuff the Scottish Government’. It’s unacceptable to stick two fingers up to Bord na Gaidhlig.”
And SNP councillor Brian Topping laughed off Mrs Webster’s housing demands – saying the £15,000 allocated for Gaelic “wouldn’t even build a garage, let alone a house”.
In the end, the co-leader’s £15,000 compromise was approved by 34 votes to 29.
Gaelic had been spoken in the north-east for centuries until the final speaker of the Deeside variation of the language – Braemar woman Jean Bain – died in 1984.