A furious row has broken out over a blog post by a Dundee taxi driver.
Councillor Rod Wallace, who is also convener of the city council’s licensing committee, issued a statement ahead of Thursday’s licensing committee clearly aimed at the majority SNP councillors warning all members of their roles and responsibilities when dealing with quasi-judicial matters.
The SNP group reacted with ”disappointment and anger” at the statement, with group leader Ken Guild saying the taxi driver in question is not an SNP office-bearer.
He accused Mr Wallace of playing party politics in the run-up to the election.
Mr Wallace’s statement read: ”I have been made aware that comments have been posted on a national taxi website, which to my mind call into question the integrity and quasi-judicial workings of the licensing committee of this council.
”The posting makes reference to ‘Dundee Taxi Association (DTA) and the Unite union having been in discussions with the SNP administration and agreement reached to work together to resolve the problems that a labour administration created.’
”At this stage I intend taking this posting seriously although I am aware that it may be just an idle wish or hope by the author.
”The unfortunate coincidence is that the author is a self-confessed political activist in Dundee. I have therefore discussed this with the depute chief executive (support services) and as a protection to all members of this committee I would remind them of their role and responsibilities when dealing with quasi-judicial matters such as the formulation of a new taxi licensing policy.
”In terms of the code of conduct, members must ensure that they are not subjected to any outside pressure or lobbying when forming an opinion on this crucial matter and any attempts by outside bodies or individuals to lobby members must be reported to the depute chief executive (support services) as the council’s monitoring officer.
”The code also indicates that political group meetings should not be used to decide how individual councillors should vote in a quasi-judicial matter.”
Mr Wallace suggested the person in question was a ”loose cannon who should be fired.”
SNP councillor Stewart Hunter attempted to respond, but the convener refused him permission to speak, telling him it was not the correct forum, and suggested the SNP group leader had been supplied with a copy of his statement.
Mr Guild later told The Courier that Mr Wallace came to his office after the committee ended and gave him a copy of the statement ”out of courtesy”.
Mr Guild said: ”If that’s his definition of courtesy then it is somewhat different from mine. Our four members on the committee have now written to him expressing their disappointment and anger at the tone and content of his statement especially when the person who is blogging on this website is a member of the SNP, but holds no office within the group.
”He made some sort of suggestion that the person is a ‘loose cannon who should be fired,’ but he is not an office bearer in the SNP. I don’t know what the person was referring to in the blog I have better things to do with my time than read taxi drivers’ blogs but all I can say is that when I became leader of the administration I met with two out of the three taxi drivers groups and told them I couldn’t deal with them while they were three disparate associations as there was no way we could get a clear policy.
”I certainly haven’t had any involvement with any of them since 2009. Councillor Wallace has taken this one statement in a taxi blog and seems to be using it as an attack on the SNP.”