A council meeting had to be postponed as an interpreter wasn’t available.
Thursday’s meeting of the communities committee wasn’t able to go ahead as a level three British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter couldn’t be found.
Dee and Glenkens Councillor John Denerley, who is on the committee, is deaf and uses BSL to communicate.
Council legal chief Vlad Valiente told members a protocol is in place to source interpreters, which includes working with the relevant agencies.
He said: “This week has been particularly problematic across Scotland. We’ve tried all interpreters through the agency but we also have another group of interpreters from time to time we use.
“We’ve attempted those and we’ve also gone through a long list of both Scottish BSL interpreters and a list of English BSL interpreters to try to accommodate this meeting.
“Unfortunately we’ve had no success in that regard and we were trying right up to the last minute to try to achieve that.
“BSL interpreters are in very short supply and we’re competing with other public bodies as well as private sector for that resource.
“We’ll obviously look at this and if there are any lessons to be learned we will do so but what I can give is the reassurance we have followed the protocol, which has been successful right up until now.”
Councillor Jim Dempster asked if training staff in BSL had been looked at, allowing them to “increase their skills and incentive by ensuring a payment will be made if their services are ever used.”
Mr Valiente said it was something that has been looked at but level three BSL interpreters were needed for the meeting and none of the staff meet the criteria.
The meeting was adjourned and will resume on Friday.
Councillor David Inglis added: “John enjoys his job – he adds to the debate and it’s important he is able to take part.”
