A year of the ‘council of chaos’
It’s now a year since the Conservatives assumed leadership of Perth and Kinross Council and it has been quite a ride for the people of Perthshire.
Schools have been earmarked for closure, the Tory bin tax has been imposed, care homes are to be abandoned, rural bus routes cut and pot holes the size of bathtubs allowed to develop.
It has even proved too much for the independents and the one Labour councillor who has up till now backed the Tories.
They have now decided to quit the administration leaving the Liberals as the sole electoral prop for the Conservatives.
It is not for nothing that the Tory council have been dubbed the‘council of chaos’.
This was only too apparent at the farcical proceedings when the Tory administration gerrymandered the membership of the lifelong learning committee by throwing the independent councillor, Xander McDade, off the committee for his opposition to rural school closures and the closure of Beechgrove House Care Home.
He has now been replaced by the recently elected Conservative Highland councillor, John Duff.
This is important because council committees should be proportionate to how the people of Perth and Kinross vote.
The Tories simply voted through their own appointment totally flying in the face of the democratic approach that has underpinned council committees for decades.
The independent councillors have now set themselves up as an independent group making the administration of the council more precarious.
They have quite rightly demanded the appropriate number of places on council committees.
The outcome of all of this is that the political balance of the council has now been re-altered and it may now be more difficult for the Tories to get their way.
This can only be good for the people of Perthshire.
This week I chaired another session of the Scottish Affairs Committee where we heard from the CEO of RBS, Ross McEwan.
We were looking for some sort of reassurances about the future of rural branches but instead we received nothing other than cold comfort.
Pitlochry and Aberfeldy branches now look doomed and the future of the reprieved branch at Comrie is very much in doubt.
After their last appearance at the committee, RBS postponed the closure of 10 branches including Comrie but this week they revealed to us that they have not even put in place a review body to assess if these branches will have a long term future.
RBS are now familiar with the anger all over Perthshire about these closures but still seem determined to proceed.
I will do all I can to oppose these closures and I want to thank the local campaigns for the efforts they have put in to save these vital local amenities. Pete Wishart says the Comrie branch is “very much in doubt”