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Pete
Bevington
7 May, 2007
THERE'S always a certain excitement with the election of a new
council, a sense of hope and possibility after four years of the
same old faces.
The last council was a particularly difficult one. It started with
the trauma of SSG Seafood and the collapse of the local salmon
industry, then becoming bogged down in disputes over the Bressay
bridge, school closures and budget cuts.
The Smyril Line investment lost its sheen, and state aid complaints
to Europe threatened to create an investment stalemate.
In its last year the council started grinding to a halt. There was
no sense of direction coming from the Town Hall, which made matters
worse by antagonising old folk and staff as never before with new
care charges and the single status offer - both withdrawn under
public protest.
The mood for change was borne out by the election result - 13 new
faces and prominent figures like Sandy Cluness, Florence Grains and
Bill Manson coming in well behind fresh faces like Allan Wishart,
Gary Robinson and Alastair Cooper.
Gordon Mitchell, who held two important portfolios in transport and
housing, was shown the door in the south mainland along with Brian
Gregson in the north, who worked hard for the isles' interests.
One of the biggest misses within the authority will be Drew Ratter
who did much to steer the SIC's economic train from his office in
Lystina House, and led the political charge for the Viking Energy
windfarm.
The difficulty now is the old council has left much unfinished
business for the inexperienced new members to tackle. Single status,
the schools review and the Bressay bridge saga are all far from
resolved, and it will take some time for the novices to find their
feet.
Under these circumstances it would be easy to see the old hands
retaking control, and chief officials taking even more of a leading
role than they have of late.
But what's more likely is a change at the helm with those members,
old and new, buoyed up by strong election results, coming to the
fore. Strong contenders for top jobs are Josie Simpson, Frank
Robertson, Gussie Angus, Allan Wishart, Alistair Cooper and possibly
even Iris Hawkins, whose strength has always been her constituency.
Already Allan Wishart is being touted as the new convener, not
surprisingly after his steadiness in the face of SIC bluster over
the Bressay bridge. The fact he has managed to win the overwhelming
support of the Lerwick North ward, which includes the island, is a
sign of his credibility with the public.
Alastair Cooper is an obvious replacement for Drew, with his decades
of experience in economic development; Frank and Josie would be
useful in infrastructure while Gussie and Iris would be more likely
to show up leading services.
But what is needed more than anything else is a change of style at
the SIC. People complained under the LibDem leadership of 1999 to
2003 that a closed group held on to all the power and stifled
debate.
But the problem became even worse during the last four years with
most councillors saying they were kept "out of the loop" as
decisions were made outwith the debating chamber. Anyone who dared
speak up against the leadership, take a bow Alistair Inkster, was
practically sent to Coventry.
This council needs to rebuild the public's trust and it will do that
by opening up debate and allowing all opinions to be aired. It needs
to show it can listen and take everyone's view on board before
making decisions based on reason. Rather than fearing dissent, it
should welcome it as an essential part of democracy.
If this does not happen there will be more petitions, more protests,
more letters to Brussels claiming state aid rules are being
breached. It will also lend more weight to the argument for
separating the council and the charitable trust.
What do you think of the new look SIC? What do you think it
should be concentrating on? Who do you think should be the new
convener? Write to us at
comment@shetland-news.co.uk
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Comments:
Allan Wishart for convenor. De-centralise is a must. DLO and all
transport should be moved to Sella Ness. One department to
Cunningsburgh. One to Bixter. One to Unst. New high school and
primary and FE facilty to be built at Clickimin. No connection to
Bressay meantime. Yell and Unst should be
first. No schools to be closed. Cut costs from excessive SIC
overheads. Three top officials should go for the single-status
fiasco.
Ertie
I think it would be no bad thing for the new council to get the
officials to draw up a list of all the property owned by the SIC and
the various trusts giving details about what, if anything, that
property is used for (including property let to some non council
person), while at the same time drawing up
a list of all property rented by the council and what that is used
for. Perhaps for the sake of simplicity council houses currently let
on normal tenancy agreements could just be covered by a simple
figure giving the total number, although listing empty properties.
Not just an idea to keep the officials busy. I doubt if the last
council had this information and I also doubt that more than a
handful of officials do. Yet there are sound reasons for councillors
to have this information. It will be relevant if there is any
discussion about building a new civic centre as well as if
decentralisation is discussed and of course theinformation is highly
relevant to cost cutting measures.
The reason I mention this is that I keep seeing signs for council
offices all over Lerwick, including some new ones, while there are
certainly some empty council-owned buildings.
Peter
Allan Wishart as the new convener,
John |
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