In an astonishing outburst, chief excective Mary Pitcaithly and finance director Alex Jannetta were accused of dictating the terms of the next budget.

The row erupted at Tuesday's meeting of the council's policy and resources committee after Mr Jannetta reported the projected overspend for the financial year which ends next month will be £1.3 million less than predicted in January.

His forecast the deficit will fall "significantly" from £1.9 million to £656,000 led to angry claims from SNP Group leader David Alexander that the Labour-led administration had either been incompetent or had deliberately misled the council before announcing its spending plans.

He said: "We are being asked to accept the administration were unaware that the financial position leading up to the budget was better than outlined in February. In other words, incompetence rather than conspiracy. I don't believe that. I believe the council's position was depicted as being worse than it was deliberately and elected members have been deceived.They must have known ahead of the budget we were £1.3 million better off."

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