Row over council leader’sTweet rumbles on
STEPHEN BARK
South Lanarkshire Council Leader John Ross has been pulled up for his conduct on Twitter.
Independent group leader Councillor Margaret Cooper (Avondale and Stonehouse) took him to task during a debate about the council’s new antisocial behaviour strategy.
She questioned his endorsement of the strategy during an executive committee meeting on Wednesday, November 6.
Councillor Cooper was referencing the council leader’s recent Tweet of a picture with a sign that said “ram yer union up yer hoop”.
His tweet had already drawn criticism from opposition leaders and Councillor Cooper told the meeting: “There is quite a bit of anti-social behaviour on social media.
“It is an area recently that has seen a huge amount of publicity.
“I find it quite farcical that the leader of the council is endorsing this policy when he recently Tweeted f**k the union.”
The council leader replied saying: “Your comments are noted.”
Councillor Ross did not actually Tweet ‘f**k the union’ but he did face criticism for writing “the perfect answer to our unionist friends” when he Tweeted a picture of a sign at an independence rally that said ‘ram yer union up yer hoop’.
The council leader, who represents Hamilton South, attended an independence rally in Glasgow, where he captured and tweeted two photographs which drew condemnation from opposition councillors.
The other photo depicted a pile of poo with a Union Flag flying from it.
Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative politicians had rounded on Councillor Ross for the Tweet.
Councillor Ross has deleted the Tweet and apologised and he said last week: “I was one of the thousands of people who took part in last weekend’s independence rally.
“My support for independence is well known, having been a member of the SNP since 1973, and I am proud to be part of the campaign for another independence referendum.
“It is very clear to me that the UK is presently in a mess and that Scotland would be better off out of the Union, and that was the essence of the messages on the posters that I Tweeted from the rally.
“However, the wording and images were not the sort of thing I would use myself and when I had a chance to reflect on this, I decided to delete the Tweet from my timeline.
“I respect that other people may not share my political views and will be careful to take cognizance of this in any future Tweets.
“I’m fully committed to doing the best that I can for South Lanarkshire and all its residents, regardless of their political views or none.
“Certainly, I never intended to offend and my apologies go to anyone who was offended.”
At Wednesday’s committee meeting, executive director for housing and technical resources Daniel Lowe outlined the strategy to the committee.
He said: “In South Lanarkshire, there is a long and well established history of partnership working to prevent and tackle the causes of anti-social behaviour and reduce the impact that it has on individuals and communities.
“In 2004, the Anti-social Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act introduced a requirement for local authorities, in conjunction with the local police division to prepare, publish and review a strategy for dealing with anti-social behaviour in their local authority area.
“This will be the fourth South Lanarkshire Anti-social Behaviour Strategy since 2004, with the previous three strategies developed as a partnership document between South Lanarkshire Council and Police Scotland, working with a range of other partner agencies.”
Mr Lowe added that the strategy was developed to complement the work of the Community Safety Partnership with an additional focus on domestic abuse, drug misuse, road traffic accidents and unintentional injuries.
However, Jim McGuigan, councillor for Bothwell and Uddingston, was concerned that drug misuse was not being given a similar billing to alcohol misuse as one of the six strategic priorities.
He said: “My concern is, we are highlighting alcohol but we are not equally highlighting drugs.
“We do get a lot of contact from our constituents about this.”
Mr Lowe confirmed drug misuse was “a big priority” but was happy to include it on a level playing field with alcohol misuse.
Councillor Robert Brown (Rutherglen South) felt tackling graffiti should also receive greater recognition within the strategy and Mr Lowe agreed to look into it.
There is quite a bit of anti-social behaviour on social media...