Falkirk Council: Councillor stands down from convenership after refusal to pay him for role

In a short resignation letter, Councillor Brian McCabe wrote: “Following the council’s decision and the lack of importance it places on the role, I see no reason to waste my time on a lost cause.”

At the final Falkirk Council meeting of the year, Councillor Robert Spears, another Independent, proposed that there should be “immediate remuneration” for the role. However, there were only two votes in favour.

They also called for a short life working group to be set up, “to consider the current scheme and make recommendations that would improve its application”. The Labour group was willing to support a working group but leader Anne Hannah said there was no point in deciding on remuneration before the group had made its findings.

It was the second time the two members of the Non-Aligned Independents Group (NAIG) had tried to win support for the change, having first raised the issue at a council meeting in July. They were told that strict rules mean that in Falkirk – which has 30 councillors – only 14 roles can be remunerated and a cap of £342,524 is in place.

Roles that are currently paid include the conveners of the planning committee and licensing board as well as the Provost, council leader, portfolio holders and leader of the main opposition group.

While there is room for one more paid convenership, there are others that are also unpaid – including external scrutiny – and other councillors said they could not agree to the uplift for just one role. The Labour group amendment, agreeing to the short life working group, was also rejected.

But Mr McCabe said the decision showed that Falkirk Council does not value the committee’s “critical” role and that the vote to reject the proposal for a second time “said it all”. He said: “There has always been the facility within the 2007 regulations to recognise and remunerate accordingly. Falkirk Council again chose not to.”

At the same meeting, the NAIG also called for a working group to be set up to review the format and content of reports provided to council and its committees. Mr McCabe said: “It is vital that when looking at reports submitted to council for decision making purposes, reports are accurate. Councillors are tasked with scrutiny, but where ‘opinion’ is presented as fact, problems arise. In trying to prevent councillors arriving at decisions based on inaccurate information which could be challenged by the wider public, NAIG proposed a short term working group to address the problem.”

Mr McCabe criticised a report about the closure of Falkirk Town Hall and plans to build a new venue in the town centre, saying some of the comments were “inaccurate” and “misleading”.

He also criticised the fact that none of the four Independent councillors have been invited to sit on the new financial strategy group, which aims to build agreement between parties ahead of the next budget. “The democratic deficit is plain for all to see,” he said. “Vested interests prevail; scrutiny is unnecessary; democracy is optional.”

Falkirk Council declined to comment.