Aberdeen Council accuse Alex Salmond of bullying FIRST Minister Alex Salmond and the leaders of Aberdeen's ruling Labour group traded insults today as their simmering feud exploded in public. In an astonishing series of letters to the city authority, Mr Salmond accused the Labour group of being in danger of bringing the "kamikaze" council into total disrepute. And he claimed that none of Scotland's 31 other councils behaved in the "extreme manner of Aberdeen City Council over a range of issues." The leaders of the Labour group, in turn, accused Mr Salmond of being a "First Minister who seems to be totally out of control" and branded his comments as the "the despicable actions of a natural bully." The blazing row erupted after the city council called for Permanent Secretary Sir Peter Housden, Scotland's top civil servant, to lead an inquiry into claims that that Mr Salmond made an unauthorised visit to a school just days before voting in the bitterly contested Aberdeen Donside by-election which the SNP won. And, in a separate issue, Councillor Angela Taylor, a senior member of the Labour administration, was reported as calling on the Government to withdraw its funding support for the Scottish Open because of the gender policy of Royal Aberdeen golf club which is to host next year's event. Responding to claims about his visit to Bramble Brae primary during the by-election campaign Mr Salmond states: that the visit, at the invitation by a member of the school's Parent Council, had been impromptu and not pre-planned. He states in a letter to Valerie Watts, the council's chief executive: " The visit was totally private. There was no press, media or party or Government officials. Therefore, to have the visit described in the terms of the council motion as a matter of "professional conduct" is quite simply ludicrous. Hopefully now that the dust has settled on the by-election those councillors will feel able to apologise for such an offensive, insensitive and clearly wrong inference. Mr Salmond continues: "I have been First Minister for over six years. During that time I have dealt with all 32 local authorities, of all political persuasions and none. No other council behaves in the extreme manner of Aberdeen City Council over a range of issues. I would suggest that the majority group are now in danger of bringing the council into total disrepute with the knock on reputational risks that that has for the great city of Aberdeen and its fine people. Responding to the claims of Councillor Taylor Mr Salmond described the remarks made by the vice convener of the council's corporate policy and performance committee as "yet another issue on which a member of your ruling group seems intent on inflicting reputational and economic damage on the city." He states in his response to Councillor Taylor that her remarks about Royal Aberdeen are "particularly ill-informed." And he continues: "The two links courses at Balgownie are both played by Aberdeen Ladies Club who have full membership rights. It is also simply untrue for you to claim that women are not admitted to the club house at Royal Aberdeen. They are welcome and there are full facilities for women players in both club houses. Again you may disapprove of this arrangement but to argue that it is the same as Muirfield, or the other handful of courses with male only membership, is simply wrong. Given these facts, your demand that the Government withdraws its financial support from the Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen next year is incredible. You wrote to me on council notepaper. Am I to understand that your call for the Government to effectively sabotage the event is really the policy of the ruling group of Aberdeen Council? Even by the standards of a council which is becoming known for refusing key investment in the city this would be a totally insane, indeed kamikaze, position. Councillor Barney Crockett, the leader of the council's Labour led rainbow coalition, branded Mr Salmond's comments as the "despicable actions of a natural bully." He claimed: "We have a first minister who seems to be totally out of control. He has confused a number of issues to create a smokescreen around points the chief executive raised, but has failed to explain his illicit actions at Bramble Brae or defend the complaint about Mr Russell's intervention in a critical issue during the by-election. He can call me names, and that's fine, but the nature of his attack on the chief executive to cover his tracks and use political issues to do that is wildly inappropriate I consider these the despicable actions of a natural bully. Councillor Willie Young, the council's finance convener, also accused Mr Salmond of acting like a bully. He said: "This is an astonishing attack on our council. He is just an absolute bully. He claimed: "Mr Salmond has it in for Aberdeen. He has given us absolutely nothing. We are the lowest funded council in Scotland and he has never been anywhere near us. We believe firmly that he will give anything to any local authority with an SNP administration.You just have to look at Edinburgh as a classic example where he came forward with £75 million to help local authorities who were not being funded enough. Edinburgh got almost £68 million of that funding and Aberdeen got £7 million. We are the only local authority that puts more money down to Edinburgh than we get back. He has got it absolutely in for the city of Aberdeen. And it makes a huge difference to the people who live here and it's unfair. He has to govern Scotland for the people. It's not our fault that the people of Aberdeen voted us in at local level.