Edinburgh council plans independent review of its handling of Cammy Day allegations

Cllr Day resigned as council leader on Monday after it emerged at the weekend that police were investigating claims of "inappropriate behaviour" amid reports he had sent unsolicited messages to Ukrainian refugees.

Former council leader Cammy Day | supplied

At the council's policy and sustainability committee - which Cllr Day previously chaired - SNP group leader Simita Kumar said: "Although these allegations are against Cllr Day, it reflects poorly on every single one of us, it reflects on us as a council.

"Although these are only allegations at the moment, the seriousness of this matter is that Cllr Day is someone of such power, as council leader. The trust we have built as a council, the trust we have built with our refugee community, I feel has been broken.

"We really need to understand our policies and procedures. We need to identify, are there gaps in our own understanding and methodology that could have prevented this from happening?"

And Lib Dem group leader Kevin Lang said: "I believe that such is the seriousness of these matters that we need a full independent review of how the council itself handled the concerns that were raised directly here about Cllr Day's alleged behaviour."

He said it was a matter of public record that complaints were received and dealt with through the council's whistleblowing service and that a complaint was made directly to the chief executive.

"I want to be very clear that I am not myself suggesting that mistakes have been made or wrongdoing has been done - I have no evidence of that - in terms of how matters were handled. But we need to accept that this has been and remains an exceptionally serious situation which has resulted, for the first time in living memory, in the leader of the council being forced to resign.

"So I think it is right to ask somebody completely independent of this council to look at what was done, when it was done, and what and if any lessons can and should be learned, and what changes if any are needed."

He added that although the review should be completed as soon as possible, the council should not set strict timelines. "If we are wanting and expecting this to be an independent review it's important the person who undertakes the review is given the space and time to do that job properly."

Green councillor Chas Booth said the situation had created "a sort of crisis" in the council.

He said: "In many ways this has had an impact on the reputation of all of us as councillors and of the wider council. It is in some respects a sort of crisis in the council and we're keen we have a cross-party meeting to discuss how we resolve this and go forward in the best interests of the council."

The committee agreed unanimously to recommend to the council an independent review.

Cllr Day resigned on Monday, saying the “commentary on my personal life” was “detracting” from the work of the Labour-led council. The next full council meeting on December 19 will be asked to elect a successor.