A SPLIT ‘rainbow coalition’ is hanging onto power at Dumfries and Galloway Council – however opposition councillors insist that a “thunderstorm” lies ahead.
Cracks have appeared in the SNP-Labour-Lib Dems-Independent collective which has run the council administration for the last eight months, and this led to a reshuffle of the power positions at a specially-called meeting last Friday.
With Labour and SNP being fierce rivals at national level, the local Labour group appear to be distancing themselves from their coalition partners locally.
At last week’s meeting, Labour group head Linda Dorward stepped down as council co-leader and instead took on the position of chairwoman of the communities committee. Meanwhile, her Labour colleague Archie Dryburgh was appointed civic head.
SNP group leader Stephen Thompson has since become sole council leader, with Lib Dems Councillor Richard Brodie appointed his new deputy.
In doing so, it manages to keep the largest political party, the Conservatives, out of power.
The Tories alternative proposal that their leader Gail Macgregor should be appointed as council leader, with colleague Malcolm Johnstone as civic head, lost out 26-16 in a vote.
Councillor Macgregor said: “I’d like to express my full surprise that only seven months into the term of this council that the rainbow coalition has thunderclouds surrounding it.
“If we think back to May, my group were proposing a fully inclusive council which would have involved all groups. It sought to respect that we are significantly the largest group and that all groups mattered.”
Councillor Macgregor had previously joined panels on leadership, budget, and business/economy with the leaders of the other political groups to foster joint, collaborative working aside from party politics.
She’s now removing herself from these groups, and continued: “We’ve ended up with a rainbow coalition that’s shut out the largest party on this council – and is doing a huge disservice to our electorate; a coalition that now seems to be in disarray.”
However, Councillor Dorward suggested that nothing has changed when it comes to running the council, apart from a few positions being shifted around.
The Labour councillor said: “The single transferable vote, or STV process that underpins local democracy means that no single party or group in Dumfries and Galloway Council has the required majority to form an administration.
“It therefore falls to every group to look to work with others to make an administration work, and to deliver the changes we have promised to those who elected us.
“In May 2022, 27 elected members opted to work together via a formal agreement process to achieve this. Today, 26 of us are still doing this successfully.”
Furthermore, the new leadership team say their commitments remain the same, from the best opportunities for children, to roads maintenance and boosting the local economy.
In a joint statement, Cllrs Stephen Thompson, Archie Dryburgh and Richard Brodie said: “We said at the start of our new Administration in May we would aim to have a new outlook, but with shared ambitions and goals. Our new leadership arrangements will help us to work together, more closely, to find common ground, for the benefit of everyone in Dumfries and Galloway.
“Since the election, our new partnership Administration has already forged a strong working relationship, based on common priorities and mutual trust. We have proved we can work together by doing things differently. We aim to include all councillors, whatever their political ideology, in the decision-making process.”
