A minority administration has been formed at Clackmannanshire Council and appointments made

Elected members were appointed to a number of key positions during two special meetings held at Kilncraigs on Thursday, June 2 – with councillor Bobby McGill named the new council leader.

Councillor Graham Watt is depute leader, councillor Derek Stewart is provost and councillor Jim Stalker is depute provost.

Changes were also made to the committee structure with a view to streamlining the decision-making process over the coming months.

Spokesperson positions were created to cover specific areas: councillor George Matchett will deal with education, councillor Graham Watt health and social work and councillor Kathleen Martin environment and housing.

Two new committees have been created – Scrutiny Committee and Audit & Finance Committee.

Councillor Janet Cadenhead has been named chair of audit, while the chair of scrutiny will be a member of the main opposition and will be appointed in due course.

Cllr McGill said: "This administration will ensure that the communities of Clackmannanshire receive the best possible services we can provide in light of reducing budgets. 

"We only have a short period of time to make the changes and decisions that need to be made which is why we have streamlined the decision making process. 

"The new structure will allow our minority administration to make prompt decisions as necessary." 

As previously reported in the Advertiser, the SNP-led administration tendered its resignation last month, saying it was "unable to command a majority".

This came after a paper was voted through council by the Labour opposition and Conservative councillor which made changes to standing orders and impacted convenorships.

In giving up the position, the political party said that it was vital those in power have a "degree of control over appointments".

Following this, the Labour group announced its intention to seek a mandate to govern as a minority, despite acknowledging that it is in a "no win situation".

Speaking after his appointment as council leader, Cllr McGill said the priority for the administration will be speaking to the management team and discussing any potential areas of change.

Getting a handle on the council's budget and ensuring that they achieve what is being aimed for financially this year is top of the agenda.

He said: "That has to be one of our priorities, to ensure that we achieve the budget and get the finances into a better position, so that will be our main drive at the start.

"Other things we want to do for communities, we can look at, and I hope that isn't going to be something that is going to take us too long, because I envisage us going out to communities and talking to people in these areas and seeing what their priorities are for the areas.”

A further full council meeting dealt with issues that were held over from last month, including a budget strategy update and paper on the tripartite group, a forum to enable three-way discussion between trade unions, elected members and management. 

The SNP opposition used the new standing order which allows questions to the council leader to seek assurances that compulsory redundancies are not on the horizon.

Leader, councillor Les Sharp, said: "During the SNPs time in administration, we worked hard to balance the budget every year while protecting jobs and keeping the burden of council tax hikes off the shoulders of hard working families.

"The new leader of the council, councillor McGill, could have taken this opportunity to emphatically reassure council staff that they would continue with the SNPs position of no compulsory redundancies but instead left uncertainty with his 'not yet' comments.

"Again Labour could have put local people’s minds at ease by confirming that they would not put council tax bills up but they refused to rule it out completely.

"I urge Labour to give firm assurances on these issues so that people know where they stand."

Cllr McGill is keen to see a quicker turnaround period for getting pension figures to staff who have indicated they may be willing to leave voluntarily, to allow the council to continue pursuing savings.

He said: "My statement was quite clear that our policy is no compulsory redundancies and I stated that at the very start.

"You've got to understand that you do all the other stuff; the voluntary severance stuff trying to encourage people if they want to move on, give them a settlement and let them go."