Ministers back down in rebel councils row
Constance ‘willing to meet’ after legal action threat
MINISTERS have signalled a climbdown over talks with Scotland’s “rebel councils” following threats of court action over new multimillion-pound cuts.
In a letter to the country’s main Labour-led authorities, Communities Secretary Angela Constance said she would be “willing to meet” to discuss the Government’s relationship with the four councils.
Hailed as an olive branch by the councils, which operate as the Scottish Local Government Partnership (SLGP) after breaking away from umbrella group Cosla, it comes a week after the four threatened ministers with a judicial writ over the exclusion of the authorities from formal talks on next year’s financial deal.
The invitation to high-level talks arrived as the leaders of the four councils, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire, met to ratify the decision to press ahead with their writ to the Court of Session.
In her letter to the councils Ms Constance said ministers had always been willing to talk to “individual councils and groupings such as the SLGP”, but would only negotiate with Scotland’s main local government body, Cosla, “when it comes to partnership negotiations on major national issues such as local government funding, health, or education”.
She added ministers were legally required to consult local government and had “discretion to determine who to consult with”.
The letter concluded: “I would be willing to meet with you to discuss Scottish ministers relationship with SLGP.”
Jenny Laing, SLGP convener and leader of Aberdeen City Council, said: “We see the Government’s offer of talks as a huge breakthrough.
“They were never going to give us equal negotiating rights with Cosla straight away, but the fact they have both recognised their statutory duty to talk to all local authorities, combined with the offer of bi-laterals with ministers and the SLGP, clearly shows a process is under way and will be welcomed by the 1.3 million people we represent across Scotland.”
Accusing the SNP of a “dictatorial style of politics which will never sit well with the people of Scotland”, she added: “Nicola Sturgeon couldn’t continue to dictate to us which local authority body we are part of. She is beginning to see sense, which is good news.”
But one leading local government source said: “There’s pragmatic as well as political reasons why negotiating with two bodies maybe isn’t so good. If their financial deals are different in any sense you could rapidly be having 32 separate negotiations. And this might soon extend to 32 separate pay negotiations.
“I see little to the SLGP other than ‘we’re Labour and they’re SNP’ and there’s a real danger to the fragmentation this could create.”
When the four councils broke away in 2014 to form the SLGP, it was claimed the new group would have the freedom to negotiate a better deal on funding for council tax payers.
But since then, councils have been hit with about £500 million in cuts, the harshest financial settlement in a generation. With a further raft of cuts coming down the line, the SLGP announced last week it had sought legal opinion and would take the matter to the Court of Session unless ministers changed their stance on negotiating with it.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We are willing to talk to individual councils and any grouping such as SLGP on matters that concern them, but when it comes to partnership negotiations on major national issues, such as local government funding, health or education, we will only negotiate with Cosla.” THOUSANDS of people have been fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of some of the world’s finest ocean going vessels.
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