The public standards commissioner has dismissed allegations of misconduct made against Aberdeenshire’s Provost, Hamish Vernal.
Fellow north-east councillor Alan Buchan referred Mr Vernal to the commissioner after a row over questions submitted to a full council meeting on November 19 last year.
Mr Buchan claimed that in his duty as chairman of the meeting, Mr Vernal did not state a personal interest in the questions submitted – the two had been involved in a previous complaint to the commissioner over similar questions in the past.
But after investigating the claims, commissioner Bill Thomson has concluded that Mr Vernal’s actions did not amount to a contravention of the councillors’ code of conduct.
Mr Thomson said: “There was no evidence that the questions raised anything which would have caused the respondent to have declared an interest, financial or non-financial, and required him to step down as chair of the meeting.
“Accordingly I did not find that the respondent’s actions amounted to a breach of the code.”
