Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Hotel boss quits community council over leaked email row

Stephen Leckie.
Stephen Leckie.

The boss of one of Scotland’s topĀ hotels has sensationally quit as head of a community watchdog group.

Stephen Leckie, chief executive atĀ the Crieff Hydro,Ā stood down as chairman ofĀ Crieff Community CouncilĀ sparking an exodus of members and bringing the group to the brink of collapse.

It follows aĀ long-simmering row which was sparked byĀ aĀ leaked email, which appeared to show the group secretary Jean Ann Scott Miller criticising a member of the public, local historian Ian Hamilton.

The email wasĀ passedĀ on to Mr Hamilton who lodged an official complaintĀ to Perth and Kinross Council. He said the correspondence, from January, had been kept secret from other members of the group.

At a community council meeting two weeks ago, Ms Scott Miller apologised for the email and submitted her resignation.

Now Mr Leckie has resigned after a memo from the council’s information compliance manager Donald Henderson, who was tasked with reviewingĀ Mr Hamilton’s complaint accused the community council ofĀ not doing enough to control and manage the situation.

Mr LeckieĀ was followed out the door by members Andrew Snowball, Chris McKintosh, Graham Donaldson and David McNaughton.

This leaves just seven community councillors, and if the group loses another member it may be forced to fold.

On Thursday, Mr Leckie stressed that the fall-out from Mr Hamilton’s complaint was not the main reason for his departure.

“I have been in this position for five years and in that time, our hotel business has grown andĀ grown,” he said. “We now have a workforce of more than 1,200.”

“I took the decision to devote my time and attention to the companyĀ and it felt like this was the right time to move on.”

He said: “This complaint was, in the council’s words, ‘trivial’. I don’t see how they say I should have dealt with it when I never received it in the first place.”

Mr Leckie said: “Why did fourĀ other people resign? Well, I suppose they didn’t want to continue without me.

“This is an opportunity for new people to step in and start afresh.”

Mr Hamilton said he had taken exception to minutes of the community council’s June meeting which were posted on social media and incorrectly stated he had complained on behalf of the Strathearn Archeological and Historical Society.

“The whole episode was a shambles,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned though, this matter is now dead and buried. It is good thatĀ everyone can now draw and line under this and move on.”

Community councillor Craig Finlay in Crieff.
Community councillor Craig Finlay in Crieff.

Remaining community councillor Craig Finlay said: “The secretary of Crieff Community Council resigned two weeks ago after her position became untenable.

“The connected matter, which caused so much disruption within recent weeks, has now regrettably led to our chairman resigning. This was not a situation we wanted to be in, and another four community councillors have since resigned.”

He added: “Those of us remaining will now work to put the disruptive issues of the past few weeks behind us and continue to focus on growing the good work we have been cultivating over recent weeks, for the benefit of all of Crieff.”

Mr Finlay added: “It’s important that we have a team of community councillors who join for the right reasons – to make life better for others – and, to this end, I would encourage anyone with that interest to become involved.”

Ms Scott Miller said: “It’s sad what happened to the community council. We achieved so much over the last five years.”