A SENIOR Labour councillor has been accused of ''fixing it'' for a friend's mother to get a house after an official inquiry at Edinburgh's City Chambers.
The report of the investigation, due to be published this week, claims Mr David Brown breached official guidelines to help the mother of a former colleague, former Lothian region councillor Mr Paul Nolan.
Mr Brown, a councillor for 28 years, is chairman of the licensing committee and could face disciplinary action by the Labour Party. Last night, he refused to comment in advance of publication of the report.
However, a council spokesman said the future of the house letting sub-committee which allocated the house was also being examined.
The council is expected to consider monitoring officer Dr Ralph Musgrove's report on May 28.
The affair came to light when disabled Mrs Christina Farquhar, 59, who was top of the house waiting list, missed out on a move from a flat to a vacant cottage in Newcraighall Drive, Edinburgh.
After representations from Mr Brown, the committee gave the house to Mrs Catherine McVey, who is Mr Nolan's mother and was ninth on the waiting list.
Dr Musgrove's report will accuse Mr Brown of breaching guidelines by failing to disclose to the committee that he knew Mrs McVey and that she was Mr Nolan's mother.
Mrs McVey was unavailable for comment yesterday, but Mr Nolan said: ''We have collaborated with the investigation through a solicitor and I understand that my mother's tenancy is not affected. I have not seen the report and I don't want to comment further until I do.''
Last night, Tory Councillor Ian Berry, who represents the Newcraighall area, called for a review of the house letting system.
He said: ''Mrs Farquhar raised this issue in a letter to me. I am furious about it. I cannot get a house in this area for people who are screaming for one. I want to know why this one was set aside for two months and then allocated to somebody who was bottom of the list.
''I expect the Labour group to look at their house letting policy very seriously. If it involves setting up an independent letting system, so much the better.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article