ABERDEEN’S Lord Provost had to resort to the “nuclear option” trying to regain control of an unruly council meeting as he had to slam his gavel dozens of times on numerous occasions for the first time.
The Aberdeen City Council’s Lord Provost, David Cameron, repeatedly slammed his gavel around 50 times during the discussion as talks between councillors broke down and the meeting was ultimately abandoned.
The Lord Provost told The Press and Journal that using his gavel was “the nuclear option” and that he had exhausted all other means of maintaining control over proceedings.
The unruly meeting came as Tory and Labour rivals accused the SNP and LibDems ruling group of “chicanery” as the coalition attempted to maintain power in the chambers.
Cameron was just over one minute into the council’s first meeting of the new year when he slammed his gavel dozens of times to try and gain control of the room.
In his opening comments, Cameron vowed to “ensure civil debate” before having to launch into a frenzy of hammer slams.
“It’s not a new gavel,” he told the P&J when they asked if it was a recent purchase.
Cameron said the gavel has been available to previous holders of the position but rarely used.
The Lord Provost said he had been thinking about using the implement in the coming meetings following a particularly chaotic summit on December 11 when ruling councillors voted down calls for a probe into emails between officials and coach firms over the city centre bus gates.
These were the same talks that descended into chaos amid claims of abuse being directed at Labour’s M Tauqeer Malik.
The Labour councillor claimed last month that the SNP’s Derek Davidson had sworn at him in the Town House.
Cameron said: “It occurred to me at the last meeting that I was getting to the point where, to try and get some sort of control, I may well have been almost resulting to shouting…
“Which I thought was not appropriate.”
The SNP councillor continued: “The gavel was always around, or could have been around.
“The idea that this is a new toy, which is what was being suggested, is absolutely nonsense.
“I would like to think that I don’t need to use the gavel to have control in the chamber.”
