THE SNP have accused East Renfrewshire’s minority Labour administration of attempting “to buy another vote” after a Conservative councillor’s pay was increased by almost £5000.
Council leader Owen O’Donnell, Labour, proposed giving a senior councillor allowance to the vice-chair of East Renfrewshire’s planning committee, a role held by Councillor Jim McLean, Conservative.
The increase was passed by nine votes to six, with the SNP objecting to the move. Basic councillor remuneration is £19,571 while senior councillors get £24,467.
Councillor Tony Buchanan, the SNP group leader, said Labour wanted “to secure Conservative votes to prop up their minority administration.”
However, Councillor O’Donnell said the pay rise was in recognition of the “expected additional workload with major capital expenditure to be reviewed in the coming years.”
The SNP and Labour, with support from Councillor Danny Devlin, had controlled East Renfrewshire Council in coalition for a decade before May’s election.
After the poll, East Renfrewshire Labour formed a minority administration with two independents as Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar claimed his party would not enter coalitions with the SNP or Conservatives. The SNP have said Labour struck a “backroom deal” with the Tories in East Renfrewshire.
Councillor Buchanan said: “It seems relatively innocuous but in reality it highlights a significant problem that I think exists in terms of the current administration. For 15 years, this authority led the way in progressive coalition politics and most importantly our residents benefited from that priority.
“Sadly we now have a motion in front of us from a potentially failing supposed minority administration. A motion which is nothing more than an attempt to buy another vote.”
He added the administration has already lost one member [Councillor David Macdonald] who “resigned because he felt the Labour leader had failed to deliver on his promises.”
“Because we assume that the Labour leader wanted to secure Conservative votes to prop up their minority administration.
“The priority should be our residents and delivering for them, not arguing over who gets what.”
In response, the council leader said: “It’s very clear that SNP members remain unhappy that they are no longer members of the administration. I do remind them they were given three opportunities to take up all of the quasi-judicial committees and roles but refused to engage with Labour on any of that.
“I also remind them all policy convenerships remain within the Labour administration together with Danny Devlin.”
Councillor Macdonald, who recently quit the administration and abstained from voting on the motion, said: “We have to appreciate the position he [Cllr O’Donnell] was put in, in terms of the restrictions that were laid down by his party leaders.
“The leadership of Labour backed themselves into a bit of a corner. To his credit, the leader has actually stayed true to fulfilling that party obligation. There weren’t many options available to form any kind of administration at all.”
However, he said he believed only the chair or the vice-chair of a committee should receive a senior councillor allowance. It doesn’t “seem in any way sellable to the public” that both positions should receive the increased pay, he added.
Councillor Macdonald asked if the increase was awarded to the vice-chair of one quasi-judicial committee [planning] then: “Why are you not doing it for audit and scrutiny and licensing? I think that’s a very fundamental and perfectly reasonable question for the public to ask.”
Councillor O’Donnell said: “That is certainly a fair point to raise, it is one we will consider over time as to how to balance that. This is very much about making sure that the people who are doing the work on committees are rewarded.”
A senior allowance was removed for the role of environment convener, held by Councillor O’Donnell, but Councillor Macdonald said it was a “moot point” as conveners could not receive the increase if they are also council leader.
Councillor Gordon Wallace, the Conservative group leader, said there had been a “stalemate” after the election.
He said: “The job of local councillors regardless of what political party, whether you’re part of a political party or not, is to serve the residents.”
“Had we allowed this stalemate situation to go on, we would have nobody running this council and the only people that would suffer would be the residents.”
He said his group would “love to have policy-making, decision places, but they [Labour] said ‘no way’ and we could have walked away from that but we didn’t, because the residents need something going on here.
“We are here for the residents, as I believe are the administration, and as far as any issues come up, we will be voting issue by issue. It’s as simple as that.”
