A former councillor has said that the current members of Western Isles Council should start listening to the community and show leadership by making sacrifices themselves before imposing cuts on the the weakest and most vulnerable people in the islands.
At last week’s cuts consultation meeting, Callum Ian Macmillan confronted the council leader in front of a packed group of irate islanders and told him his job was obsolete and shouldn’t have been created in the first place. He told the meeting it was a huge waste of money .
The former Labour group leader said the only population in our islands that had increased in recent years had been the number of councillors and council leaders. “And,” he said, “it’s got to stop.”
Macmillan has now followed up his claim by demanding that not only should the council leader’s post be terminated but he has also asked the Chief Executive Malcolm Burr to tell all local councillors they should agree to take a pay cut.
Chief Executive Burr, who Macmillan says has take-home pay that is more than the Prime Minister’s, defended the post of council leader, whose office is next door to his own, by telling angry islanders that every other council apart from Orkney had one.
Macmillan retorted: “Half of Scotland have floods tonight that doesn’t mean we want one.”
Macmillan believes the Chief Executive should call on the 30 island councillors to lead by example and take a £3,500 cut in their £16,000pa basic salary and abolish the post of council leader. He has calculated it would save more than £125,000 at a stroke.
“It simply isn’t good enough to ask the people who elected you to suffer the pain when you’re getting £16,000 just for turning up. Western Isles councillors need to know that if our community faces the consequences of the painful decisions they have to make they too have to share some of the pain,” said Macmillan
“The days of ineffective luxuries like the council leader’s job are gone. It’s time for our councillors to get off the gravy train before we hit the buffers. I am calling on them to show leadership and lead by example.”
Too right! As has been pointed out many times by people on this blog, the proportion of councillors to residents in the islands is utterly ridiculous. Especially in comparison to … well, everywhere else.
Wondering if, at some point when the Comhairle are again requesting more funding from either the Holyrood or Westminster governments, that the response will be “With all of those well-funded, expense-claiming councillors? You’re just taking the p***. Get your own house in order first before sending out the begging bowl.”
Is this a fall out within the Whitehouse ? Is Labour trying to oust Campbell ?
We currently have a Convenor who appears, nowadays, to be little other than a figurehead who is rolled out now and again to wear the Provost’s chain and preside over ceremonial functions. He presumably gets his £16,000 plus extra for being the Convenor, plus extra for being on particular committees, plus extra for expenses. So presumably he gets around £25,000.
We have the fairly recently appointed Leader of the council who does the work formerly done by the Convenor, with presumably similar monies to that paid to the Convenor, so he probably gets around £25,000.
Then we have another twenty-nine councillors on £16,000, plus money for being on assorted committees, plus expenses. So they presumably get at least £20,000.
This means we are forking out somewhere around £630,000 for our councillors, not counting money spent on them taking wee trips here and there, on council business, of course. The council has obviously not grasped the technicalities of things like tele-conferencing, or even the telephone, to eliminate a lot of this travelling.
Then we have the situation whereby the population of the Western Isles is continuing to fall. It is currently around 25,000. This means we have one councillor for every 806 people or, put another way, one councillor for every 400 electors. That is a very high figure of representation, probably the highest in Scotland, if not in the whole of the UK. We have, for example, three councillors for Point, though Skye has a total of three councillors.
Consider also that there are a lot of pensioners in the islands, and a lot of people who are only earning the basic minimum wage of £6.19 an hour; the monies paid to our councillors are, by comparison, quite a healthy wage. The more so when account is taken of the amount of actual work they do. It is, as the old saying goes, money for old rope.
If our council does not get its act together, then they may find that, in the not too distant future, the Scottish government will scrap our council and move to a Highlands and Islands council, or similar. That, in one way, would not be the best outcome for the islanders, but the current situation is not the best for the islanders either because of the costs involved and the fact that this council tends to ignore the needs and wishes of the people.
I’d really like our dear Leader to reply to this comment, not only if I have my figures wrong, or at least badly wrong, but to justify their self-centred attitude and to tell us when they are going to do something about it. They can make an immediate start by scrapping their subsidized council restaurant and their subsidized bar.
Labour fallout? Leave the politics aside. The King has no clothes. Campbell if he had a grain of common decency should resign. His position is untenable and he along with many mostly long serving leeches are loathed by the people they claim to serve. Of course that is not what they think and “we” will continue to fund them and make sure they get their OBE or MBE at the end OLD BOY NETWORK and Apathy rules.
Sorry – but I’m missing something here. Aren’t the number of councillors set centrally for the Western Isles? I’m not sure they have any choice about it other than contributing to consultation documents on representation.
The question of whether or not to have a Council Leader etc is a different issue. If I recall, that was a matter of choice.
You are correct donald. The decision on Leader was at the time a good one. Campbell for his faults has done a good job as leader however it’s his personal business that’s under scrutiny and that is why people are upset/angry.
Maybe the lodge fortrose group will step up to the mark.
Many of our c’llors are OAP’s, receiving state pension and many also occupational pensions. How many incomes do they require, or insist on receiving? It should be considered an honour and privilege to serve, and to undertake public duties without any pecuniary reward, particularly at a time when we are strapped for cash and contemplating cuts to life-line services to our most vulnerable citizens.
@Pavlov. And the rest are virtually unemployable in any circumstance.
Our glorious Convener, for instance, has a patchy employment history exclusively in the public sector that explains exactly why he doesn’t understand the private sector.
The number of Councillors is set by the Scottish Government via the Ward Boundry Commision, therefore a reduction in the number of Councillors would not be a saving to the Comhairle but a saving to the Government who would reduce the revenue support budget to the Comhairle by the number of reduced Councillors.The only saving that would be made is the reduction of Councillors ward priority fund ,plus expenses,Imagine all 32 Local Authoritys reducing their number of Councillors by 10 that’s over £5m back into the Government coffers. Money that will help out to build the new Forth Road Bridge along with the savings of redundantiTeachers,Nurses,and Public sector employees.
Most likely the next Local Elections will see a redution in the number of Councillors (which the last Comhairle agree to) but with a larger salary to encourage people to stand, and make Councillors a full time post.
You coves up there are very lucky indeed to have someone like Calum Iain Macmillan fighting your corner, it seems to me that the further South you go the more pathetic the representation becomes, until rock bottom is reached in Barra. I reckon that on this showing Mr. Macmillan will be a cert in at the next election, which is, unfortunately, a long way away.
Well said Monkey Subsidy
Your man Steele spoke today MS. And I though Ronald was the one to watch. Mallaig ferry will never happen with AA as MSP no matter how hard Steele or MacKinnon shout
Well what I’ve heard the SNP group totally embarrassed themselves and Steele and Nicolson took the urine. From what i hear the laughter was groundbreaking that even G Murray may side with his pal from South
Is there any truth in the rumour that the Council may be being threatened to be sued again by Nicholson Accountants? I’m told threats have been made….
I think they have a lot on Nicolson.
Don’t know about having a lot on him. Don’t know why he’d sue but it never stopped him suing in the past.
MacMillan a ‘cert in the next election’?
Which MacMillan is this of which you speak Monkey?
Do you possess your very own giraffe?
Undermilkwood- you would be surprised about the wide diversity of wildlife that slithers in the undergrowth in Barra!