THE SNP took control of a regional council for the first time
yesterday. After a week of stalemate following the local elections, the
party formed a minority administration on Tayside Regional Council.
It took over from a minority Labour administration of eight years
standing, and Mrs Frances Duncan, previously SNP group leader, was
unanimously elected council convener.
The SNP has 22 of the 46 seats, with Labour on 16, the Conservatives
on 4, and the Liberal Democrats and Independents with two each.
SNP councillor Jim Duthie, whose one-vote majority is the subject of
legal action by the defeated Labour candidate, was elected
vice-convener.
All Nationalist proposals for convenerships were unapposed.
Councillor Lena Graham, leader of the new administration, said she
hoped it would receive Labour's co-operation. ''If we all have the
electorate's best interests at heart then we've got to work together to
get through the next two years. Otherwise it's just a mockery.''
Councillor Mervyn Rolfe, Labour leader on the council, said the party
was not setting out to work with anyone. ''We're setting out to
implement Labour Party policies even if it's from the opposition
benches.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article