One week after the results of the City Council elections were announced, you might have expected to know how the coalition might be made up.
There is no one political group which has a majority, so it is clear that some sort of joint working arrangement may be needed, but none has yet been declared.
We had understood that a deal between the SNP and Labour Groups had been reached on Wednesday evening, but so far this has not yet been revealed.
We were also told that both National executives have to sign off on the pledges and details, but that does not yet appear to have been achieved.
The SNP group leader, Adam McVey explained the current position to The Edinburgh Reporter. He said : “Coalition negotiations are ongoing, and I’m still hopeful that we can reach a deal which reflects the vision of Edinburgh that the majority of the people of Edinburgh voted for.
“I can’t pretend that the internal Labour party process required before a deal can be signed off hasn’t been a frustrating element of these negotiations. However, we’re ready to lead the City and we’ll keep working hard to find an agreeable solution take our Capital forward.”
At last week’s elections the SNP was returned as the largest group with 19 councillors, and the Conservative Group under the leadership of Inverleith councillor Iain Whyte have 18. Despite these numbers the SNP have been trying to turn their five year relationship with the Labour Group of 8 councillors into a different vehicle, and a minority coalition. In the last administration it was the Labour Group who had the largest number of councillors and they led the Capital Coalition. This time round it will be the SNP who will lead on the agenda for the next five years, and the Lord Provost will be appointed from among their number. The SNP group will also depend on each issue on support from the LibDems and Greens who both increased their councillor numbers at last week’s election.
We hope to be able to tell you that the capital of Scotland has a new council administration at the beginning of next week.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
But the majority of people in Edinburgh voted for the Conservative Party. Why are the SNP allowed to tell blatant lies like this without being challenged.
Comments are closed.