Edinburgh secure units scandal: Labour denies voting against debate because of 'party' plans

Labour group leader Cammy Day has denied suggestions his councillors voted against debating the damning report on Edinburgh’s secure accommodation for young people so they could get away for a party.

Let us know what you think and join the conversation at the bottom of this article.

The full council meeting on March 17 had not reached the report by its monitoring officer, which found “illegality, maladministration and injustice” in the running of the secure units, by the 5pm cut-off time when remaining business must be voted on without discussion. The Tories proposed suspending standing orders so it could be debated, but the move was defeated by 36 votes to 19. Most Labour councillors voted against suspending standing orders.

And Tories have claimed part of the reason could be that they had planned a party to mark the last full council meeting before the elections when several long-serving Labour members are standing down.

Councillor Jim Campbell said: “When they voted to cut debate short, it seems it wasn’t so much to ‘have their tea’ but to have a party.”

Cllr Day said a small group had enjoyed drinks in the Labour rooms at the City Chambers but denied it was a party and dismissed any connection with the vote.

He said: “I think there were five of us – it was just after-council drinks as we would normally do if we were in the office. It’s utter nonsense that anybody tried to curtail the meeting for anything apart from the reasons we’ve already given – that it had been debated [in private] at GRBV (the council’s governance, risk and best value committee) and survivors themselves have said they don’t want to politicise these issues; I believe it was dealt with appropriately and there was no need to have a further debate in council.

"It was nothing to do with the fact that people were having drinks later. It had been planned for months anyway. If the drinks didn’t start till 7pm nobody would care.

Labour group leader Cammy Day says five councillors had drinks at the Labour rooms in the City Chambers.

"It wasn’t a party, it was a few people having a drink after their final council – people stayed for a few hours and then they went home. And it was all within the numbers allowed in our rooms.”

Meanwhile, an extract of minute from the meeting shows that, in addition to the Tories, four other councillors voted to suspend standing orders so there could be a debate – Labour backbencher Scott Arthur, Green councillor Susan Rae, independent Claire Bridgman and former education vice-convener Alison Dickie who quit the SNP group in January and now sits as an independent.

Cllr Arthur said: “I took part in a full and free debate on the report at the GRBV committee and was happy with the level of discussion which took place there. But if there’s a choice between debating something in public or not I think it’s always better to have that debate.”

Cllr Bridgman said not all councillors had had the opportunity to discuss it at GRBV. She said: “When there is a topic where things need to be discussed it's important that all voices are heard and we get to represent our communities. A topic as important as this needs to be debated.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.