The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Councillors accused of ‘secret deal’
Authority: Labour ‘frozen out’ of committees after three-year pact collapses
The independent group which has taken over Highland Council was yesterday accused of doing a secret deal with both the SNP and the Highland Alliance to hang on to positions of power. Labour councillor Fraser Parr, pictured, called for transparency as he claimed his party had been frozen out of power.
A Labour councillor in Highland yesterday accused the independent group now running the authority’s minority administration of doing a secret deal with both the SNP and the Highland Alliance to give them positions of power, and freezing out his party.
Inverness Ness- side councillor Fraser Parr made the claim after a special meeting of the council to appoint committee chairmen and women in the wake of last week’s collapse of a three-year pact between the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Labour.
All the new positions – several given to opposition members – went through unchallenged, much to his frustration.
Mr Parr said: “It appears the independents have some kind of informal alliance with the SNP and the Highland Alliance group over positions that have been filled. There should be more transparency in decision making and I just hope the independent group reflect on this.”
Labour group leader Jimmy Gray said: “Today wasn’t the day to raise this, when we were reflecting on Charles Kennedy, but I think there’s a lot of concern that there appear to have been wheeler deals and arrangements made by people who will lead the opposition and lead the council. A particular area of concern is audit and scrutiny. It will probably need some thought to ensure we’ve got openness and transparency.”
New council leader Margaret Davidson denied that any secret deals were done between independents and any other faction. “We tabled out candidates,” she said. “Anyone in this chamber could have stood for any of the positions. Others chose not to.”
Senior Lib Dem David Alston, who blamed deeprooted differences with the SNP for his group’s decision to break up the coalition, said: “We’re now in a situation where the independent group are the prisoners of the SNP and there’s no true opposition on the council.”
Opposition leader Maxine Smith said: “It’s been very disruptive. I would much rather be going forward as leader of the administration rather than the opposition.
“However, it gives us a chance to really scrutinise what’s going on.
“The coalition wasn’t always easy. Now, we’ll be able to decide what we want as a group and put that to the floor in the chamber.”
There are now just three truly “independent” councillors – Carolyn Wilson and Jaci Douglas, who refuse to be part of a group and former Lib Dem Linda Munro. They are defined as “non aligned”.
The council now comprises 32 independents in the administration and an opposition of 21SNP, 11 Lib-Dem, eight Labour, five Highland Alliance and three non-aligned councillors.
Other appointments will be made on June 25.