And finally…everything isn’t awesome in Denmark for Aberdeenshire Council boss

Martin Kitts-Hayes, a one-time Liberal Democrat but now an independent, had been due to attend the North Sea Commission last weekend to discuss ways of improving the economies of northern Europe.

But when he and his delegation arrived, they found they had been booked into ‘Wild West Cabins’ at Billund, near Legoland.

The Daily Record reported that Mr Kitts-Hayes said: “We tried to get alternative accommodation and couldn’t, so we came back.

“The accommodation was disgusting. It was worse than a B&B. It was a shed. We were in what was described as holiday chalets, which were basically sheds.

“There was a bathroom, if you could call it a bathroom, quite frankly. You could loosely describe it as a shower.”

Mr Kitts-Hayes decision to return home has since led to the council’s chief executive announcing his conduct would be investigated.

He said he now acknowledged his decision “was a poor one”.

The local authority is currently in the middle of implementing a £50million austerity programme and the cancelled trip is understood to have wasted £5,000.

Mr Kitts-Hayes is the councillor for Inverurie and District, and is co council leader with the SNP’s Richard Thomson.

He said: “As the leader of the delegation, it was my decision that we should return and I take full responsibility for that decision.

“However, it is clear that this decision to return has caused significant concerns, both amongst colleagues, as well as our Danish hosts.

“It was never my intention that this should be the case. However, upon reflection, I acknowledge that the decision to return was a poor one.”

Mr Kitts-Hayes added: “Independently of the chief executive’s investigation, I will be writing to the organisers of the conference to offer my apologies for any disruption which the decision to return early to Scotland caused to their planned schedule.”

It is believed the aborted trip cost the council a four-figure sum.

Conservative group leader Jim Gifford said: “The council has spent a substantial amount of money sending people to a conference that they did not attend and that’s the fundamental problem here.”