JOHN MacCALMAN, Municipal Correspondent
John MacCalman, Municipal Correspondent, reports from the Cosla conference
q A second senior Scottish councillor yesterday urged Cosla to reconsider its relationship with the Scottish Office as the advent of a Scottish Parliament draws closer.
In particular, Conservative Councillor Brian Meek wants to see an end to the staging of joint press conferences by Cosla and the present Government.
His call followed comments on Wednesday from the Independent leader of Scottish Borders Council Andrew Tulley, who complained of the ''cosy'' relationship between Cosla and the Scottish Office.
Councillor Meek told delegates that the new parliament would provide Cosla with a challenge as to actually getting its message across. That could not be achieved simply as a partner.
He added: ''Local government has to stand on its own feet and make sure that it believes in what it puts across.
''I do not believe it has been helpful to Cosla to stage joint press conferences with the present Government. I think it is for the local authorities to put their case and for the Government to put theirs, and they are not always the same.''
ALLEGATIONS of sleaze against councillors are to be dealt with by a new national standards commission, Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar announced in Aberdeen yesterday.
Led by a standards commissioner, it will investigate individual cases and recommend sanctions - which could include censure, temporary suspension from office, or a period of disqualification from office as a councillor.
However, the initiative was condemned as a ''publicity stunt'' by Conservative local government spokeswoman, Councillor Daphne Sleigh, who said the function could easily be carried out by the existing Ombudsman service - a view endorsed by Depute Ombudsman Janice Renton, who was a delegate at the Cosla conference.
Senior Scottish Conservative Councillor Brian Meek told delegates earlier that he did not like the idea of appointing ''a sleaze buster'' because he did not believe sleaze was a major factor in local government in Scotland.
He added: ''I think we leave ourselves open to that kind of media interpretation if that is the road we are going to go down.''
There was also criticism from East Ayrshire Council's Labour leader David Sneller, who referred to the commission as ''using a sledgehammer to crack a nut''.
Announcing the initiative, Mr Dewar said the work to develop a new ethical framework for local government followed on from the publication last year of the Nolan Committee's report on local government conduct.
He said: ''We agree with the Nolan Committee that the system should be clarified, strengthened, and simplified. We recognise the need to go beyond internal procedures if confidence is to be fully restored.
''Both the Government and Cosla believe that public confidence in local government would be best sustained if serious allegations received impartial, authoritative, and apolitical investigation by an external body. We have, therefore, developed proposals which are, in important respects, stronger than those in the Nolan Committee's reports.
Mr Dewar said there was to be a new national code of local government conduct in Scotland, which Cosla would have a lead in developing and which all Scottish councils would be expected to adopt. This would include general principles for local government conduct and also new and clearer rules about when a councillor could, and could not, take part in discussions of council business in which he had an interest.
The Minister disclosed that the new commission would be made up of respected figures, some from local government and others drawn from a wider field.
On the question of the Ombudsman service being able to fulfil the role, Mr Dewar pointed out that the Ombudsman had a wide-ranging remit to investigate complaints about services. The issues to be addressed by the new commission would be more pointed and damaging. He felt it would be reassuring to the public to have a specific body dealing with these problems.
He was also confident that once the new system was up and running and accepted, there would be less chance of legal challenge, as had occurred in the Labour Party's recent botched attempts to discipline a group of Glasgow councillors, notably Lord Provost Patrick Lally.
Mr Dewar also told conference of his plans to upgrade education, child care, and transport priorities for the year ahead - raising school standards, revolutionising child care, and renewing public transport.
He announced that he was shortly to publish a green paper on transport proposing new powers for local government to end gridlock in the cities and tackle the collapse of rural transport.
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