THERE have been growing calls for East Ayrshire Council’s Chief Executive to stand down in the aftermath of the meeting to discuss the damning report into the opencast crisis.

Local community groups are now calling for Fiona Lees to resign after Jim Mackinnon - author of the report in to opencasting following the collapse of Scottish Coal and ATH - met with representatives of local community groups to discuss his findings - a year after the report was first produced.

Among those in attendance was Patna resident and community activist, John Young.

Following the meeting Mr Young said: “Mr Mackinnon was informative and as forthright as he could be. I gained a few insights. There was widespread dismay at the scale of still unexplained council failures and an apparent lack of accountability. I can only speak for myself though when I say that every further revelation of failure makes it harder for me to understand how the Chief Executive is still in a job.” Scottish Government official, Graham Marchbank was also in attendance to assist Mr Mackinnon with any government matters.

Mr Mackinnon addressed the invited community group leaders for around 40 minutes at Rothesay House, Cumnock on Monday night and then went on to answer questions from the interested representaives.Many of the attendees vented their anger over the opencast fiasco - blaming the council.

Those at the meeting claim Mr Mackinnon backed that judgement.

More pressure was piled on the counil to hold a public meeting regarding the report when Mr Mackinnon revealed that he is happy to speak at a forum with EAC in attendance.

Questions were also raised over why the council failed to carry out an investigation into opencast restoration - despite a remit to do so as far back as January 2011.

Local campaigner Jerry Mulders, who was also at the meeting, told the Chronicle: “Mr McKinnon was very clear that he could not explain why things like standard planning and legal procedures were not applied to opencast, but were fully applied to other developments in East Ayrshire. "The only council employee that could offer some insight as to why that was the case, had already been pensioned off and then refused to co operate with his investigation. It is regrettable that the council refused to appoint someone with Mr McKinnon who could legally compel witnesses to attend interviews. We will never know the whole truth. “However, I was pleased that he agreed to look at the evidence available from EAC cabinet minutes which were previously missed. In 2011 the depute chief executive ( now also retired ) was tasked by the elected councillors to review and report on the East Ayrshire opencast developments some two years before Scottish Coal became insolvent but never did. We also do not know why the elected councillors did not follow up this oversight nearer the time.The missed set of minutes were felt to be significant enough that an addendum to his report can be expected on this matter.”