Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Sitting on council sidelines for now
SNP won’t launch bid to run NL until May elections Let’s clear the whole lot out and start afresh, the people permitting . . . Cllr David Stocks
The SNP group on North Lanarkshire Council has voted against mounting a bid to take control of the authority – despite further resignations which mean that the “ramshackle” Labour group is now running a minority administration.
Members decided by a split 12- 6 margin at their latest meeting not to launch a motion to oust council leader Jim Logue, with opposition leader David Stocks saying he does not wish to have to rely on support from “malcontented Labour councillors who have let down the people of North Lanarkshire over these past five years”.
Councillor Logue’s ruling Labour group now has 34 members following the resignation from the party of respective Motherwell and Wishaw councillors Gary O’Rorke and Frank McKay.
North Lanarkshire has 22 SNP councillors and 14 independents – half of whom have left the Labour group since Councillor Logue’s administration took over in March. The next council election takes place in May.
Airdrie Central representative Councillor Stocks said following the vote: “The SNP group has no confidence in the current ramshackle Labour administration. They are no longer fit to run this council; there’s a complete breakdown in trust.
“However, [we] decided not to push an actual ‘no confidence’ vote because we would have been relying on support from rebel Labour councillors who have themselves let North Lanarkshire down in the past.
“The SNP group hope to form a stable administration serving the people of North Lanarkshire after May, running an efficient council. At this juncture, 22 SNP councillors running a 70-member council would be numerically challenging.”
He also told the Advertiser how the SNP group “couldn’t guarantee” sufficient support given that the votes of every non-Labour member would have been required, saying: “If you look at the figures, there was doubt about whether we’d have won a no-confidence motion.
“If we had, things would have been difficult [to run]; it would have been a mistake going in there just now and I believe we did the right thing. There was overwhelming support from the group in that respect.”
Speaking about the forthcoming election, he said: “I believe we can have that mandate [to govern] in May – let’s clear the whole lot out and start afresh, the people permitting. I’ll continue to draw people’s attention to issues like equal pay, alarm charges and library cuts.
“Labour are in a complete mess – resignations, others threatening to stand as independents, and accusations of corruption and police investigations. We want a clean break for the residents of North Lanarkshire, with a clear SNP administration coming in next year.”
Council leader Logue described his opposition counterpart’s comments on the SNP group decision as “very interesting”; and defended his restructuring of the Labour administration.
He remains confident about negotiating the remaining council term, saying: “There were six independents before members starting resigning from the Labour group, and I don’t have a problem in working with people issue by issue.
“There was a critical need to refresh the decision-making process in the council.
“I made it very clear before I was elected [ leader] that there would be changes in the team, that I’d bring forward new members and committees and that I wanted to re-energise and refresh conveners.
“If that’s the case, there are winners and losers. Four [ former conveners] resigned almost immediately; it then took eight months for another three when nothing material has changed.
“Some people had intimated that they were going to stand down; it’s good succession planning and was an ideal opportunity to encourage younger people to come in. There’s a lot that’s positive, and I’m happy with the team around me.”