John MacCalman in the Herald 11 th July 2001.
| 'Four councillors have been thrown out of the Labour group on West Dunbartonshire Council for supporting an opposition motion of no confidence against their group leader.' John MacCalman in the Herald 11 th July 2001. | |
Labour's dominance of Scottish local councils has taken a pounding since the last elections with the party across Scotland being forced either out of power or to share control with its opponents.
By-elections, splits and defections have led to it losing five of the 14 councils of which it had majority control after the 1990 elections.
That has left it with control of only nine out of 32 councils, with several former srtongholds vulnerable at next year's election. If the trend continues into next year, there could be lasting damage to the Labour-led Executive's ability to push through controversial private finance schemes for council services.
The party has voiced strong opposition to plans by its coalition partners in the Scottish parliament to see proportional voting introduced for council elections, arguing that would give smaller parties too much power.
Yet even with the current, first-past-the-post voting system, Labour has been forced into sharing power in nine councils - as many as it controls outright - raising worrying questions for the party leadership about how to fight council elections on May 1
The party is at risk of losing overall control at next year's election in the flagship City of Edinburgh Council. Its opponents are putting resources into dislodging Labour in close-fought councils including including Dundee, which Nationalists aim to make the first city they have ever controlled. Lib Dems are targetting Labour in Aberdeen and in Fife, while they are under threat from Tories in South Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire and Stirling.
Labour also fear their diminished council power is undermining plans for public-private partnership schemes around the country. Councils such as east Dunbartonshire, with its left-wing coalition, have become stardard-bearers for opposition to such schemes.
The analysis of 65 council by-elections since the May 199 election shows Labour has lost 16 seats and gained only one, with its share of the vote slumping by 9 %. Tories ahve been the big winners, gaining eight seats and losing none. The SNP has gained seven and lost four, and the Lib Dems have gained six and lost six.
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