Suspended Forfar councillor Colin Brown has launched a blistering “bully boy” attack on Angus SNP administration leader Iain Gaul.
Just days after the Standards Commission banned the independent councillor from council meetings for two months over a breach of the Code of Conduct connected to the Forfar superpub fiasco, Mr Brown delivered a tirade against his Kirriemuir counterpart, condemning the leader’s “Team Angus” ethos as “dead in the water”.
Mr Brown accepted the commission’s finding that he had breached the code by failing to declare a family interest during discussions over JD Wetherspoon’s six-figure plan to buy council offices at The Cross and create a town centre superpub.
The deal eventually foundered after a debacle that saw the pub firm forced to up a £350,000 private offer when news of the closed doors deal became public and the sprawling listed building was placed on the open market in a council U-turn. Wetherspoon then pulled out completely, ditching Forfar from their Angus expansion plans.
However, the suspended councillor said his opposition to the pub plan had been a reflection of the strength of local feeling and was not driven by family interest.
Earlier this week The Courier also revealed Mr Brown is now the subject of a fresh Standards Commission complaint, also understood to have been made by Mr Gaul, over an unrelated matter.
But the controversy and Standards Commission censure has not stood in the way of Mr Brown releasing a remarkable statement condemning the council leader.
He said: “Councillor Iain Gaul is a man who would like to rule the council with his dictatorial ways and has used emotive words such as traitors, cowards and idiots for those who don’t agree with him.
“If this had been at school he would have been classed as a bully one day and a tell-tale the next.
“His so-called Team Angus only applies if all councillors do what he tells them and I am sure the public will recognise this.”
He continued: “I accept that I should have declared an interest now that it has been pointed out to me, but I was representing all my constituents, something I was elected to do.
“I had no intention of misleading the council nor breaching the Councillors’ Code of Conduct and I accept that my actions in this case amounted to a breach.
“As the Cross is the civic centre of Forfar we needed another licenced premises like the Sahara needs sand.
“Could you imagine Armistice Sunday, Santa’s visit to the Cross at Christmas, Armed Forces Day and any other civic event that takes place in and around the Cross, complete with a Wetherspoons outlet in the middle?”
Mr Gaul declined to comment on Mr Brown’s comments.