THE growing feud between a controversial councillor blamed for scuppering Donald Trump's £1 billion golf resort and the leader of Aberdeenshire Council deepened yesterday.
Councillor Martin Ford claimed he was being treated like the "victim of a political purge in a totalitarian regime".
Mr Ford was removed from his post as chairman of Aberdeenshire Council's main planning committee after he used his casting vote t
o reject the massive Trump development.
Last month, he accused leaders of the authority's ruling Liberal Democrat group of a "shabby backstreet assassination" after he was stripped of the joint chairmanship of the North-east's main strategic planning organisation.
However, in a further development, he has been removed from his positions on the North-east council's transport authority and two council working groups.
Mr Ford has now sent an e-mail to all 24 fellow members of the council's Lib Dem group, in which he accuses Anne Robertson, the group leader, of bringing the party into disrepute due to the way he has been treated. And he declares: "I have no trust or confidence left in the leadership of the Aberdeenshire Council Lib Dem group."
Last night, Mr Ford said: "I am not in dispute with my party or the Lib Dem group. I do have an issue, however, with the behaviour of the leadership of the Lib Dem group and, specifically, that relates to the way I have been removed from these various positions and how I have found out about it.
"The council would be taken to the cleaners if they treated an employee in this way."
Mr Ford added: "I find it deeply disturbing that these things are going on in the group in which I am a member. They are basic issues of dignity of the individual, courtesy and respect.
"The experience I am going through I find truly surreal. The nearest analogy I can find is that it is like being the victim of a political purge in a totalitarian regime, where one is declared officially a non-person and the 'disappeared'."
The Scotsman revealed last month that Mr Ford had been axed from his post as one of the two joint chairmen of the Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire joint strategic planning committee and replaced by fellow Lib Dem Peter Argyle, who succeeded him as chairman of the council's infrastructure services committee (ISC).
Mr Ford has been removed from his council place on Nestrans, the transport partnership for Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, as well as the council's fisheries and waste-management working groups.
In the e-mail, Mr Ford claims he was kept in the dark about his removal from the three posts and that a letter was sent to Nestrans officials, informing them of his replacement on the board, four days before a meeting at which Ms Robertson allegedly gave assurances about how proposals to replace him would be handled in future.
Mr Ford's e-mail states: "With great regret, I have to say to you frankly that I have no trust or confidence left in the leadership of the Aberdeenshire Council Liberal Democrat group.
"The actions of Ms Robertson are, I believe, bringing our party into disrepute."
Last night, Ms Robertson rejected Mr Ford's claims, adding: "There has been nothing underhand. Nothing has gone on behind (Mr Ford's] back, that he's not aware of."
The full article contains 564 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
