Council faces power grab
CONTROL of Argyll and Bute Council is hanging in the balance as this issue of the Advertiser goes on sale.
A special meeting of the authority will be held today (Thursday), at the request of 15 opposition councillors, following a furious row over a vote to impose a 10 per cent hike in council tax rates.
The only substantive items on the agenda for the meeting are the election of a Provost and the election of a leader.
At present the coalition of Conservative, Liberal Democrat and independent councillors known as TALIG - The Argyll, Lomond and Islands Group - holds only a slim majority in the council chamber.
But the Strategic Opposition Partnership (SOP), which includes SNP and Labour councillors as well as other independents, still needs a small number of TALIG councillors to switch sides if it’s to seize control.
In a statement calling for the meeting, the SOP said: “This move comes in the wake of the current administration’s disingenuous, smoke and mirrors U-turn on their reckless and completely unnecessary 10 per cent council tax hike, and follows two years of indecisive, clandestine, and weak leadership.”
Councillor Currie responded: “The facts are clear. Without the overall improvement in our circumstances that the severe weather funding brings, the funding offered solely in relation to the freeze was not enough on its own to avoid serious threats to
vital services and jobs both now and in future years, where we are facing very significant challenges indeed.
“Tackling those challenges is always my priority and focus.”
The row broke out after the TALIG administration’s budget proposals for the 2024-25 financial year, including a 10 per cent council tax increase as well as a 6 per cent hike in fees imposed on the public for using some council services, were approved on February 22.
The SOP put forward an alternative spending package that would have seen council tax frozen, but the TALIG budget won the day by 18 votes to 16.
The vote made Argyll and Bute one of only two Scottish councils, along with Labour-run Inverclyde, to impose a council tax increase, in defiance of the pledge made by First Minister Humza Yousaf at the SNP’s conference last October that council tax bills would be frozen across the country.
Inverclyde has since reversed its decision and agreed to freeze council tax at its current level.
And following February’s meeting, talks were held between senior TALIG councillors, Argyll and Bute officials
and the Scottish Government which resulted in extra funding being made available for this area too.
With that in mind, another special meeting of the full council has been called for Monday, April 15, when it’s expected that the decision to raise council tax will be reversed.
But depending on the outcome of today’s meeting it could be a completely different set of councillors in charge by then.
Thursday’s agenda also includes an item on ‘political management appointments’, also known as spokespersons or ‘policy leads’ for subject areas such as finance, infrastructure and education.
The agenda also says that “all political management appointments including depute provost and depute leader will become vacant and removal of existing appointees will be with immediate effect”, and that replacements will be agreed at the next regular full council meeting, which is due to be held on April 25.
However, it’s understood that this step will only be taken if the opposition councillors win the day.