West Lothian’s SNP group expressed “deep disappointment” after their motion of no confidence in the council administration was defeated.
It came as no surprise, and the special meeting was dismissed across the chamber, and among councillors – including some SNP members- in Livingston’s Civic Centre as a “waste of time.”
The West Lothian Council depute opposition group leader; Councillor Pauline Stafford came in for direct criticism with claims the meeting had been set up as a pre-election stunt ahead of next May’s Holyrood poll.
SNP councillors hit out at what they labelled personal attacks. Group leader Janet Campbell said the meeting had been called because of the level of anger from community centre volunteers who have felt ignored in the process to implement change.
Her motion said: “Many of these decisions have been made without allowing adequate scrutiny from all councillors; they have lacked transparency; failed to involve proper consultation” and the party argued that decisions should have been brought before all councillors not just the Labour dominated executive.
She said that Labour had spurned a post-election offer in 2022 from the SNP to work with them in administration. “Political leadership failed when this was rejected out of hand,” she added.
Councillor Campbell said: “We brought this motion because residents and volunteers have been in tears over the way their community centres have been treated.
“Unfortunately, the Labour‑Tory administration chose to close ranks. By voting down our motion they have ignored the voices of local people and signalled that they are content to continue making decisions behind closed doors.”
The meeting of the full council stalled a few times. Provost, Labour’s Cathy Muldoon had to call for quiet across the chamber. Attempts to connect with four councillors- three SNP and one Labour- attending remotely, to hear their contributions also led to a brief break.
Councillors voted down the motion in favour of a Labour amendment seconded by the Conservative group. The amendment stressed that no community centre would close.
Councillor Lawrence Fitzpatrick’s amendment branded a recent walkout from a council meeting by the SNP as “show-boating”.
It also noted that: “Council notes that the current system of governance allied to Standing Orders was implemented in May 2007” by the SNP” when it was in power in West Lothian.
It went to detail on engagement with community centres management committees including 86 meetings as requested by the Community Centre Management Committees, including nine briefings, as well as workshops and other officer engagement.
Seconding the motion Conservative group leader Damian Doran-Timson told the meeting: “The councillor Stafford campaign is up and running and this is what this is all about.”
Lib Dem Sally Pattle told the SNP group she would be abstaining in the vote: “We are all very aware that local authorities are facing the biggest challenges in their history. Every elected member in this chamber knows this, just as the communities that we serve are well aware that their lives don’t appear to be getting better while we sit in here doing this.
“That is why this special meeting is in my opinion a complete waste of time.
“Instead of using this time to come up with proactive solutions to find sustainable long-term plans for community centres we have to listen to grandstanding and navel gazing on both sides of the chamber to no discernible end.”
She said the review could have been handled much better in terms of presentation but said the source of much anxiety among front-line staff and management committees had come from misinformation from the SNP.
“The SNP hasn’t come with any solutions of their own. Today I am abstaining. I don’t see the point in any of us doing this. It won’t help anyone.”
Independent Andrew McGuire said he would have supported the SNP motion if it had been about looking at updating standing orders, adding that was a “different issue for a different day.”
He added: “Even if this motion was supported by every single member in this chamber not one thing would change about community centres.”
He described the vote as a confection.
After the meeting Councillor Stafford told the local Democracy Reporting Service: “Today’s vote will be a bitter blow for the volunteers who have been pleading for openness and fairness. ”
By Stuart Sommerville, Local Democracy Reporter
