Probe into claims of pressure on council officials

Gordon Berry, The Courier, 27 July 1999

Claims that pressure was applied to officials involved in preparing reports which recommended approval or highly controversial £50 million golf, hotel and leisure plans at Kingask, near St Andrews, have led to the setting up of an independent inquiry.

This was revealed yesterday by Fife Council chief executive Douglas Sinclair in the wake of suggestions that staff members had been told from above to “trim their reports, come in line, or stay silent.”

Mr Sinclair said that a former chief executive of Glasgow City Council, John Anderson, would be investigating allegations made by the chairman of the authority‘s east area development committee, Councillor Peter Douglas.

Mr Douglas, who was backed by St Andrews councillor Frances Melville, made his statement in the wake of the decision by the council’s centrally-based strategic development committee to approve the hotly-contested Kingask plans.

Over a period of months there was intense debate over interpretation of policies and reports which were criticised some quarters for allegedly ignoring the terms of documents such as the local transportation study, the St Andrews Strategic Study and guidelines for issues such as coastal planning and landscape.

Since then further questions have been raised over the reading of reports from independent traffic and landscape consultants employed by the council to examine the issues involved.

As revealed in The Courier yesterday, moves are now afoot among objectors in St Andrews for a Court of Session judicial review of a number of matters relating to the handling of the application.

The council has steadfastly maintained that it has dealt with the issues in a proper and correct manner, and that existing policies are not compromised by the decisions taken over Kingask.

When Mr Douglas raised the matter of alleged pressure on staff, he said he had never before been telephoned by Fife employees seeking anonymity because they feared losing their jobs.

Mr Sinclair said yesterday that the council’s code of conduct for its employees stated that every employee was entitled to expect fair and reasonable treatment from his or her colleagues and managers, and from councillors.

He added that the council also provided for “whistle-blowing” and that if an employee felt that he or she had been asked to act in a way that might be improper, illegal or unethical, but felt unable to discuss the matter with a line manager, the issue could be raised direct with him. He said the confidentiality of the employee’s concerns would be guaranteed absolutely.

“Given the seriousness of Councillor Douglas’s allegations, and in the interests of all the employees concerned, I’ve invited John Anderson to undertake an independent investigation into the allegations and to establish whether the code of conduct has been broken,” said Mr Sinclair.

“I want to stress that we are dealing with allegations and that no supporting evidence has been produced, to date, to support them. It is in the public interest and the interests of all employees that an independent investigation takes place and that the situation is resolved.”