West Lothian Council accused of political bias over email to community groups
Council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick branded the SNP accusations “nonsense”
West Lothian’s opposition SNP group leader has accused the ruling Labour group of damaging the council’s neutrality and reputation, by using a council email address to promote partisan policies.
The council emailed all community councils a copy of Labour’s motion against planned changes to local government which had been accepted in a vote by councillors earlier this month.
The leader of the council branded the SNP claim “nonsense”.
Council officers this week rejected the accusation, saying they had no right to “edit” or summarise motions, or decisions made by councillors.
The Labour motion had been voted through and was delivered to the community councils as the stance adopted by the council. At the meeting of the Executive, the SNP had abstained, offering no alternative amendment.
Officers pointed out that motions and amendments from all political groups are regularly sent out to councillors and the press at council meetings using the westlothian.gov.uk email address.
However, Councillor Janet Campbell, who leads the 14-strong opposition group, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the email to community councils breached “political neutrality” and risked “reputational damage” to the council.
Councillor Campbell raised the issue during a meeting of the Executive which discussed potential risks to the council.
She had raised the issue before the meeting with senior council officers, including the Governance Manager, Lesley Montagu.
Councillor Campbell accused Lawrence Fitzpatrick, the Labour council leader, of refusing to answer questions on the issue, though she had not directly asked him any, instead directing questions to an officer who had delivered the paper on reputational risk.
After the Executive meeting, Councillor Campbell told the LDRS: “I was refused any answer to extremely serious questions which I raised at the Council Executive, with the Administration of West Lothian Council choosing to hide behind the Governance Manager and the Chief Executive. The leader of the failed labour / Tory coalition refused to answer at all.”
She claimed: “There is no doubt at all – the people of West Lothian have been let down by this failed coalition who now no longer pretend neutrality from a West Lothian Council perspective – public trust in West Lothian Council has been completely eroded. The leader of West Lothian Council has shown incompetence and is too cowardly to answer the questions put today honestly.”
Councillor Fitzpatrick told the LDRS: “Accusations of absence of neutrality is nonsense.”
“My motion at Council Executive on Public Sector Reform had the clear intention of supporting 8,000 local council jobs and solidifying community facilities in West Lothian.
“Having moved the motion which was duly seconded there was no amendment. There being no amendment there could be no debate or comment all in strict accordance with council Standing Orders.
“Cllr Campbell should have backed the motion as have other SNP Groups in Scottish Councils.”
A council spokesperson also rejected the SNP claims.
In a robust response to the LDRS they said: “Officers are aware of the issue raised by Cllr Campbell and that it has been addressed. There has been no breach of any governance rules.
“Any complaint received in respect of action taken by officers and/or elected members will be investigated but the business to be considered at committee meetings is limited to those items that appear on the public agenda.
“Committee is not an appropriate forum for members to raise matters in respect of complaints against elected members, which require to be treated by officers in confidence, or operational matters pertaining to officer conduct. All councillors are aware of this.
They added: “An email was issued by a council officer to external parties to highlight the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Reform. This was not at the request of a political party. It was at the request of the Scottish Government Minister for Public Finance.
“A copy of motion approved by elected members at the meeting of the council’s Executive committee, which set out the council’s agreed position in relation to Public Sector Reform, was included. There was no alternative position moved to that set out in the motion.
“The motion was provided to ensure the third parties were appraised of all relevant information when participating in national dialogue on public sector reform proposals when representing the interests of their communities.
“It is the council’s standard practice when issuing correspondence that sets out the agreed position of council/committee to include the agreed Motion/Amendment in its entirety to ensure that officers do not require to provide a summary of the matters noted, actions agreed by members, or the context in which they were taken.
“Where a notice of motion/amendment has been lodged on party headed paper it will include that heading when issued to third parties.
“The council has consistently taken this approach and has regularly attached agreed motions from all political parties in correspondence arising from committee decisions issued to third parties. This is not in breach of any rule regarding the political neutrality of officers.”