Labour and Conservative councillors last night agreed an unlikely alliance to form the administration for a Scottish council.

It is believed to be the first time in recent memory that Labour and the Conservatives have formed a two-party coalition. East Dunbartonshire Council will be a Labour-Tory coalition with Labour's Rhondda Geekie as leader and the Tories' Billy Hendry as deputy.

The SNP, which won eight seats at the election, had offered a "rainbow" coalition with a minority administration as a solution to the hung council. They proposed that the other parties would each have a deputy convenership of one of the political committees and all groups would have an input in discussions during the budget-setting process.

But combined votes from Labour and the Conservatives gave them an 11-10 lead over the Nationalists for control of the council, which was previously run by the LibDems.

One of the most contentious pre-election issues for the council was the LibDems' decision to extend rubbish collections to every fortnight.

The new Labour-Tory coalition has now reversed that decision to restore weekly refuse collections for householders.

The deal was immediately condemned by the council's SNP group who described it as "an astonishing tactical ploy" to keep them out of power.