FRANK McAveety’s leadership of Glasgow council has suffered another blow after one of his top officials was signed off sick.
Brian Devlin will be recuperating away from the city chambers amid claims morale amongst senior officers is low.
McAveety replaced Gordon Matheson as local authority leader last year, but his Labour administration has lurched from one controversy to another.
The former MSP's internal party critics believe he lacks vision and has appointed male loyalists to key posts.
However, there has also been tension with the council’s top officials, who are key to pushing through the leader’s policies.
As revealed by the Sunday Herald, McAveety’s political allies criticised the council chief executive Annemarie O’Donnell at a Labour group meeting in December over a perceived lack of detail on budget cuts.
McAveety refused to give the official full backing when asked by this newspaper.
The leader then removed Colin Edgar from his post as head of communication and service development after a breakdown in their working relationship.
McAveety reportedly had a “long-standing distrust” of Edgar, a respected PR professional who has been given a similar job at the council-owned Glasgow Life.
Picture: McAveety
It has now emerged that Devlin, the executive director of Land and Environmental Services, was signed off sick last week.
Devlin is in charge of a huge council department including cleansing, parks, roads, environment and sustainability and other related services.
The remit spans the management and maintenance of the road transport network and the array of parks and open spaces under the local authority’s control.
A spokesman for the council refused to say whether Devlin had signed off with stress, or whether he had complained about any Labour councillor.
He said: “We have a duty of care to all of our employees. Mr Devlin is absent from work on sick leave and we cannot comment further on personal matters.”
A council source said relations between the McAveety camp and top officials was “very poor”.
The council, faced with having to make around £130 million of budget cuts, is making some of its toughest ever decisions.
Councillors last week approved plans to shed 1,500 jobs and slash funding to voluntary groups.
A spokesperson for the SNP Group on the city council said. "There is chaos at the heart of Glasgow Labour and until they are removed the city will be continue to be plagued by poor leadership and score settling. The people of Glasgow are the losers here.”
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