An Angus councillor has been accused of wasting time and money and ‘strangling’ the council in exercising its business.
SNP councillor Bill Duff has hit out at fellow councillor Bill Bowles, who has called two special meetings of the council to vote on reconsidering a previous decision.
The previous decision related to the council granting landlord’s consent to Carnoustie Golf Links Management Committee (CGLMC) to take out a loan of up to £2.95m for a golf centre extension.
This week’s vote comes just nine days after a special meeting last week when a vote was taken on exactly the same motion.
Last Tuesday 13 SNP councillors voted against the motion and the 13 opposition councillors voted with the motion but Mr Bowles required a two-thirds majority to be successful.
Mr Bowles subsequently compared SNP councillors to spineless octopuses in emails which could see him reported to the Standards Commission.
Now Montrose councillor Bill Duff has criticised the Carnoustie member for calling another special meeting.
Mr Duff said: “Cllr Bowles brought this issue back to a special council meeting using a procedural motion. This can only be described as huge waste of time and public money.
“He now proposes to use the same procedural motion for a further special council to waste even more public money and officer time and strangle the council in exercising its proper business.”
Mr Duff added that he was fully supportive of the plans for a golf centre extension at Carnoustie links.
He continued: “CGLMC approached the council for landlord approval and also to approve an increase in CGLMC borrowing powers.
“This was taken at the council meeting of May 12.
“At this meeting a number of amendments were proposed, all of which were ruled incompetent.
“However, any councillor could have proposed the direct negative to refuse the application from CGLMC.
“This was not done.
“The case for the project is clear. Carnoustie Golf Course is one of the best courses in Scotland and has hosted The Open twice in the past 20 years and is the venue for the 2018 event.
“Angus benefits hugely from this event which allows the county to promote our other golf courses under the Carnoustie Country banner.
“However, we cannot sit on our laurels.
“Expenditure on golf courses elsewhere to provide ever better facilities for customers means that if we wish to keep Carnoustie and Angus to the forefront then we need to enhance the food and beverage facilities on offer.
“That is the view of CGLMC who are trusted to manage the golf business. It is a view to which I concur.”
If I have offended any democratic open minded self thinking Councillors in Angus I apologise.
— Bill Bowles (@BillBowles3) June 11, 2016
Responding to the comments, Mr Bowles said: “If we’d had a proper debate in the chamber and allow that democratic process to happen then this will not be raised again.”
He added: “If the SNP are so confident that building a new bar and restaurant is the right thing to do, then let’s at least have a debate about that.
“I am calling on members of the SNP to say we’re prepared to not block vote and be whipped and we are happy for this to be debated because that is our job to do that.”
An online petition has also been launched calling for the golf centre extension to be scrapped.
