New powers to keep council ticking over

Emergency measures to make decisions

STEPHEN BARK

Emergency measures to ensure business can continue have been taken by South Lanarkshire Council.

With committee meetings cancelled until at least Easter as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, powers have been delegated to chief executive Cleland Sneddon to ensure urgent decisions can be made.

Provision under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and the council’s Scheme of Delegation allow for the chief executive to take on more responsibility than usual when committees are unable to meet.

The leaders of the council’s five political groups have agreed that the extraordinary action should be taken under standing order 36c and will be consulted before any decisions are taken.

Standing order 36c states: “If a matter requires to be dealt with as a matter of urgency, the chief executive or any executive director, in consultation with the relevant chairperson or depute chairperson and ex officio member, can decide on the matter and report on the action taken to the next meeting for information.”

In practice, this means officers will continue to prepare reports in time for when the meetings were due to take place and the council will continue to make these publicly available one week before the meeting as normal.

It is understood a conference call between Mr Sneddon and the five political group leaders will take place on the scheduled day of the meeting to allow concerns to be relayed before a decision is taken and a decision notice will be published on the same day. The scheduled executive committee and full council meetings yesterday (Wednesday) were the first affected by the new arrangement.

A council spokesman said: “National legislation and Schemes of Delegation at councils across the country are in place to ensure that business can continue during times when committees cannot meet. In South Lanarkshire as a temporary arrangement business will be considered by the chief executive in consultation with all the political group leaders.

“To ensure transparency, committee reports will continue to be published at least five working days ahead of the date of the scheduled committee, and a note on decisions taken will be posted on the council’s website on the day the meeting was due to take place.”

This arrangement is expected to continue while meetings remain suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak and the council have said they will review the situation after the Easter recess.