In the dim and dark recesses of North Lanarkshire Council they no doubt feel aggrieved that the Scottish Secretary's crusading assault on errant councils comes just as their own little local difficulty, comprising a #4m hole in the building and road accounts, the plumber with the golden blow-torch, and other extraordinary occurrences, has become evident. Frankly, in a less apathetic society, in a society which actually cares about honesty, decency, and the democratic necessity of proper local government, the citizens would have metaphorically stormed this excuse for a council and hanged the leading councillors and officials from their civic lamp-posts long ago. It is not the case, after all, that this particular blot on the local-government map is new to controversy. North Lanarkshire is
the direct successor to Monklands and the outrageous conduct which took place there is too recent to be forgotten. Neither did the birth of the new authority end the Monklands affair. The Accounts Commission Chief Auditor received the full financial information on the Monklands shortfall from the new council only last month. His opinion of the discharge of the relevant stewardship responsibilities by North Lanarkshire Council was not complimentary.
As in many examples of incompetence and lack of control by councils it is the direct labour organisation which is at the centre of the latest affair. Mr Dewar has acted with commendable speed in requiring councillors to explain exactly what has happened. Once he has heard what they have to say he has powers which can take matters further. He is aware of the past problems of direct labour organisations and he must consider whether the award of lucrative contracts to in-house units has a tendency to lead to slack control and to abuses of the system. A useful point of comparison would be a council which has awarded contracts to its own DLO but which can show that the organisation is properly run and, most importantly, demonstrate how this is achieved. If not, and if there is a body of evidence which casts doubts on the advisability of DLOs in the future, Mr Dewar should consider their removal.
The imminent arrival of the Scottish Parliament raises further questions about North Lanarkshire. There is no doubt that the Labour Party intends to be strict in its assessment of potential candidates. It is vital that this standard is applied rigorously to any members of North Lanarkshire Council who may wish to be MSPs. The importation of some of the values and attitudes which have brought local government in Scotland to such a low level of esteem in the minds of the public would be a disaster and that stricture applies to members of all political parties.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article