A senior opposition councillor has called for Fife Council leader David Ross to resign amid a bitter row about job cuts.
SNP finance spokesman David Alexander claimed Mr Ross’s prediction of up to 2,000 local authority job losses over the next three years was “ridiculous” and accused Labour of running a dishonest and outrageous campaign.
His comments follow a letter sent to staff by council chief executive Steve Grimmond after last week’s budget meeting in which he said there were no service plans or savings proposals which led to that figure.
Mr Ross is standing by his comments and has accused the SNP of a cynical attempt to divert attention away from the real issue of cuts to services by the Scottish Government.
But in a statement issued to The Courier, Mr Alexander insisted the council leader’s position was now untenable.
“Over the last few months we have witnessed one of the most outrageous political campaigns where the Labour party has used council facilities to write to staff and the third sector attacking the SNP… culminating in a ridiculous claim that Fife Council could see up to 2,000 jobs being lost,” he said.
He added: “As a councillor of 29 years I have never witnessed such a devastating intervention by a chief executive and this has to be welcomed.”
Mr Ross hit back, stating: “The SNP need to tell us how many jobs they think will be lost if the council has to make £91 million of savings over the next three years.
“The Labour administration will spend its time trying to prevent these potential job losses from happening, not pretending there’s no problem as the SNP seem to be doing.”
He added: “What I’ve been saying publicly and to the press about the impact the cuts to council funding will have… is entirely consistent with the note sent to staff by the chief executive.
“I don’t take kindly to being called a liar as at least one SNP councillor has done and I’ll be asking for an apology.