Fife SNP councillors were accused of not watching enough television as they revealed discrepancies in housing figures presented to a scrutiny committee.
Opposition members were forced to defend themselves as Labour colleague Altany Craik charged them with “hijacking and ambushing an officer” during questioning of housing chief John Mills.
The spat arose as Mr Mills revealed a detailed report on Fife’s affordable housing programme.
It includes the number of council houses built or bought in the region over the past seven years.
The report was requested by the SNP’s Lesley Backhouse amid claims the council is not buying enough homes to alleviate a declared housing emergency.
However, it emerged the paper contains 163 more acquisitions than the number previously revealed to councillors.
The Scottish Government provides grants to buy homes so an increase of 163 would equate to more than £6 million extra in funding.
Mr Mills said he was confident his figures were correct.
However, SNP members sought further clarity.
‘Hijacking and ambushing officer’ over housing figures
Councillor Lynn Mowatt said: “Glenrothes area committee has only been advised of 50 acquisitions, not the 83 in the paper.
“Six were purchased to demolish, one was reported to committee twice, one was a lock-up.
“That leaves us with 42 acquisitions, far short of the 83 reported today.
“It leaves me unable to accept the figures in the report in front of us.”
Other SNP councillors reported similar positions in their areas.
Mr Craik retorted his colleagues had “not watched television enough, in my view”.
He added: “I think it’s outrageous, frankly, to come along with ‘we’ve got a wee plan and we’ve had a wee check’.
“Not having raised that with the service before the paper got here is hijacking and ambushing an officer in a very unfair way.”
Labour colleague Patrick Browne agreed, saying he found the questions “quite sad”.
‘What’s the point of us as councillors then?’
Ms Mowatt replied: “It’s not a wee check. It’s scrutiny.”
And East Neuk SNP member Alycia Hayes added: “That’s the point, surely, of a scrutiny committee.
“If we can’t just simply, politely and kindly ask for the numbers to be verified and for that information to come back to the next meeting, then what’s the point of us as councillors?”
Mr Mills said the information in his report had been verified with the service that reports to the Scottish Government.
“I have a high level of confidence this information is absolutely correct,” he said.
He offered to provide further verification, including lists of the houses bought.
However, the committee – with the exception of SNP members – opted to accept the figures.
The acceptance was on the condition Mr Mills checks them and reports back if they do not add up.
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