“Game playing” by SNP councillors 19/2/14
Sir,
This is not an easy time to be a local councillor. The Scottish Government has slashed
the Comhairle’s budget by £5.48 million forcing cuts to local services whilst at
the same time aggressively assimulating control over, once local, services to the
centre -
In circumstances like this most councillors recognise the need to work together to find the best compromise which retains the maximum service level for our community. This did require hard, and unwelcome, decisions. These decisions were based on extensive consultation and retaining, as a priority, essential services such as those for the elderly and the young. At the same time services that were not centrally funded by the Scottish Government, like itinerant primary teachers, took the hit at no detriment to the education service.
This was not the thinking of the SNP group on the Comhairle. I think I would have some respect for their position if they too had sought the views of the electorate or if they had engaged with the exhaustive process of coming to a decision on the budget. They did neither. One year ago they produced a last minute budget which was released to the press before councillors received it. Their budget would have done more harm than good and was heavily defeated.
This year the same tactic was used. I received my copy of this year’s SNP budget amendment on Thursday shortly before the debate to set the budget. I had been told something of its content by a member of the press who assumed that I would have been given a copy. The amendment in the names of Cllrs Gordon Murray and Rae Mackenzie had had to be hastily amended in the knowledge that the Comhairle budget already met certain of their aspirations. They did not know this in advance because they had not engaged in the process.
The argument of the SNP rested on assertion with no evidence to back it. They exhibited a failure to recognise that the Scottish Government had made it clear that teacher numbers were to be strictly related to pupil numbers. They used emotive phrases like ‘lifeline services’ where none was under consideration and made false declarations of loyalty to our staff. On this last point, there is more knowledge and understanding and sympathy for the Trade Union movement in my pinkie than in the whole SNP group put together.
The SNP voted against the Budget presented by the Leader who had spent a great deal of time with senior officers resolving issues of unintended consequence, seeking to help those in poverty and laying the groundwork for a Comhairle energy company.
The SNP voted against:
- A resolution to the bus service anomaly at Laxdale School
- The introduction of the Living Wage for our staff excluding Islands Allowance
- The removal of the need to apply for a smaller house before receiving support because of the Bedroom Tax
- The creation of a budget to help in the setting up of a Comhairle energy company which might be the best way to tackle fuel poverty in these islands
- Investigating the likelihood of restoring a five day air service between Benbecula and Stornoway
In the evening at full council an amendment was moved by Cllrs John A Maciver and Kenneth Macleod. They offered no argument in support of their amendment. Then Cllr Donald Manford, Leader of the SNP, moved an amendment which even he, it turned out, did not understand and he advanced no argument either. (His amendment did not seek to change the Comhairle’s position on the Uist wind farms as had been trailed in advance of the meeting.) Why would they do that? Was it because they had issued press releases in advance of the meeting? The SNP group are treating democracy with contempt. They are playing games when they should be considering the interests of the electorate. Shame on them all.
Cllr Angus McCormack
25 North Street
Sandwick
Isle of Lewis