Ex-SNP leader quizzed over Â£1500 gift to colleague

Councillor Steve Cardownie, the former leader of the council’s SNP group, told the Evening News that he gave Cllr Jim Orr the “four-figure cash gift” to compensate for the latter’s loss of income following a shake-up of the committee system.

He was interviewed by police for two hours earlier this year after the incident was reported by Cllr Orr - but officers confirmed to the Evening News they had now dropped the investigation.

Cllr Orr resigned the whip of the SNP group in 2014 and is now an independent representing Southside and Newington.

The cash handover happened after Cllr Orr - who was SNP transport vice-convener at the time - discovered he was to lose a Special Responsibility Payment (SRA) paid to those who take on “senior councillor” posts.

Cllr Orr said he was appointed vice-chair of the Forth Estuaries Transport Authority to help boost his salary, but was still around £1500 worse off.

In an online blog, he wrote: “By early 2013 there was still no solution to the missing £1.5k and Cardownie decided to address the issue in an unusual way – he said he’d pay it to me personally.

“I made it clear this was totally unacceptable.”

But he wrote that he later decided to accept the cash via bank transfer and give it to a third party, adding: “I’d spent two weeks of the previous year teaching English in Eastern Europe and already planned to help out the family I had stayed with at some time.

“I knew their youngest kid needed to pay college fees and so I very reluctantly decided to made a counter-proposal...that if Cardownie paid the money directly to her, without me touching it, then I would consider the matter closed.”

Cllr Cardownie declined to pursue this option and later took Cllr Orr to his office and gave the £1500 to him in cash.

According to Cllr Orr, he sent the money to the family in Eastern Europe within the next couple of weeks - and later lodged a formal complaint about the deal.

Speaking to the Evening News, Cllr Cardownie said: “The police have investigated this matter and they are completely satisfied that there’s nothing criminal or untoward about it.”

He said Cllr Orr had made no complaint about the payment at the time, adding: “He was not the only councillor where that arrangement applied. It was purely and solely a redistribution of our own SRA to compensate other councillors who lost them.”

He said the money came out of his own pocket, as he was paid more by the council.