Sending out a 12-page magazine on the “legacy” of Aberdeen City Council throughout the past five years could cost taxpayers £40,000.
The SNP group on the local authority claim finance officers had advised them on the figure as the bills would need A4 sized envelopes, additional printing costs for the magazines and more postage paid.
On Thursday, councillors voted 20 to 18 to send out the publication along with council tax bills which are due around February.
The plan resulted in an angry outburst from the opposition SNP and Liberal Democrat groups who said the posting was “propaganda”.
Last night council finance convener and Labour councillor Willie Young, confirmed the £40,000 figure was “about right”.
However, he argued the magazine would document the “achievements” of the council “of which the Lib Dems and the SNP are a part”, adding: “It isn’t political propaganda”.
Mr Young said: “All this is doing is informing the public on what the council has done. I think that is a great thing. We should be telling people how we spend their money.
“Members of Scottish Parliament send out through the public purse correspondence updating them every year with regards to what they have done in their communities.
“All we are doing is exactly the same. We have done some wonderful things. We built the first bridge in 30 years, we have the £350million new AECC, the strategic infrastructure plan, new schools.
“All we are doing is letting the public now what the council has done over the five year term we have been involved in.”
However last night the council’s SNP group leader, Stephen Flynn, said: “Our perspective is the entire thing is absolutely shameful. No amount of spin from councillor Young is going to hide this is evident propaganda and he should hang his head in shame.
“I’d rather we didn’t spend the money on complete nonsense such as this, there are many options where this should go.
“Public money should not be spent in this way. To spend money on what is what is essentially a Labour party leaflet is a complete shambles.”
The Labour-lead administration was heavily criticised for sending out pro-union letters with council tax bills in the run up to the independence referendum in 2014, leading to many of the Labour group being taken to the standards commission.
They were all cleared.
