Monday’s committees

A lot of business was dealt with at the series of council committee meetings held on Monday evening. On a local issue, the City Development Committee agreed to proceed with traffic regulation orders that will see additional public electric vehicle charging points being installed across the city, including two at Queen Street car park. In response to a question I asked, the committee was advised that the charging points would be available 24 hours a day and would be accessed by the use of smart card technology.

 At the Policy and Resources Committee there was an item requesting the committee’s instructions in regard to making a submission to the Smith Commission, which is the cross party body tasked with producing recommendations for further devolution of powers to the Scottish Parliament. The council’s SNP administration produced a list of further powers it would like to see devolved (I pointed out that the Commission is keen to avoid a simple ‘shopping list’ of further powers); I proposed that no submission be made by the council, leaving it instead to the political groups and individual councillors to submit their own views. I said that the submission proposed by the administration only represented the views of the SNP and not those of every elected member. I mentioned what the Scottish Conservatives position is and stressed that the further development of Scottish devolution must strengthen the Union, upholding the clearly stated majority view of Scottish voters. My proposal was defeated by 15 votes to 3.

The committee also agreed that a draft Gaelic Language Plan go forward as a basis for consultation but with no commitment on the part of the council to implement all or any of the recommendations. The Scottish Government requires local authorities to develop a Gaelic language plan with the aim of raising the status and profile of Gaelic.

The council's draft plan will be published on 1^st November with the 31^st December as the deadline for comments. The outcome of the consultation will be submitted to the committee in February.  Whether or not you intend to respond formally to the consultation I would be interested in knowing what you think about this matter.