Highland Council urged to scrap ‘votes for churches’

Voting rights for religious representatives on Scottish councils, including the Highland local authority, is ‘undemocratic’ say campaigners.

Campaigners from Humanist Society Scotland have called on the new intake of Highland councillors, as well as those re-elected, to ensure religious groups do not get a privileged say over how schools are run.

While the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 requires councils to appoint religious representatives to committees considering education matters, after a school closure case in 2019 in Perth and Kinross, the Scottish Government made clear each local authority could decide whether religious representatives got to vote or not.

Leading the call to remove what he slammed as ‘undemocratic’ votes for churches, Fraser Sutherland, pictured, chief executive of Humanist Society Scotland, wants councillors from Lochaber and elsewhere in Highland region to halt such voting rights. ‘Given Scotland’s proportional voting system for councils, new and returning councillors in Highland will know that every decision made will involve negotiations and close votes,’ added Mr Sutherland. ‘What they won’t be considering is that any decisions they may take on education can be overturned on the say-so of unelected representatives from Scotland’s churches and religious institutions. ‘Highland councillors need to take action now so that only those voted in democratically will have a say on local schooling.

‘We urge Highland Council to bring forward a motion or new rules of engagement for non-elected church representatives to remove their voting rights.’