An SNP councillor in Edinburgh apologised to a female party colleague after making a “completely inappropriate” comment to her at a committee meeting.
During a discussion on a planning matter, the SNP's Lewis Ritchie told Kate Campbell she could touch a stone with her hands and “whatever other parts of your body you want to touch it with”.
Chas Booth, a Green councillor in Edinburgh, said: “At the time, I thought it was a completely inappropriate remark to make and I raised it with him. I hope he has learned his lesson.”
Ritchie, who represents the Leith Walk ward, is listed as being an army reservist and a non-executive director of Children’s Hearings Scotland.
As a councillor, he was until recently the convener of the planning committee and development management sub-committee (DMSC).
At a meeting of the DMSC in June, councillors discussed a proposal for a residential development in Dalmeny. Campbell, who serves the Portobello/Craigmillar ward, raised a point about the material used for the planned 15 houses.
On the council webcast, available to any member of the public, Ritchie can be seen saying: "We could continue and actually bring the stone in and you could touch it with your hands, and whatever other parts of your body you want to touch it with."
Ritchie laughed as he made the remark, after which the official sitting next to him appeared to be taken aback by the comment.
A spokesperson for the SNP said: “We understand that Cllr Ritchie was spoken to by the Group Whip about his comments, and the matter was closed. No report was escalated to the party.”
Asked if Ritchie had apologised to councillor Campbell, the spokesperson said: “Yes.”
Ritchie recently took a “leave of absence” from the council for health reasons, which is unconnected to his comments at the committee. He has been replaced as convener on both committees.
He previously attracted media coverage after describing the designs behind plans to turn the Royal High School in Edinburgh into a hotel as “ugly”, “abhorrent” and almost “universally reviled” by anyone who had seen them.
A Scottish Conservative spokesperson said: “These comments were clearly inappropriate and it is only right that the councillor involved was made to apologise for his behaviour.
"If this was a councillor from another party, the SNP would be calling for extremely tough action. With that in mind, it should apply some of its own supposed standards to this case."
Ritchie could not be reached.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel