ALL CHANGE IN ARGYLL
DICK Walsh is the new leader of Argyll and Bute Council, following a meeting on Monday morning between members of the Alliance of Independent councillors and SNP councillors at the Argyll Hotel in Inveraray on Monday.
The two groupings hammered out a ‘power-sharing’ agreement which also sees Bute councillor Robert Macintyre take on the role of deputy leader.
This is not the first time that Councillor Walsh, one of the longest-serving and most experienced councillors, has served as leader. In the last council he held a number of important briefs and is widely regarded as being a master of detail and an impressive debater.
Following his appointment, which has to be ratified by the full council, he said: “I feel both proud and privileged to have won the support of my Independent and SNP colleagues and to be placed in the position of Leader Elect of Argyll and Bute Council.
“I am looking forward to our working together over the next four year term of office and, although I know that there will be many tough decisions to take - some in the very near future - I am confident that we will find the solutions that are best for Argyll and Bute.”
Councillor Macintyre said: “I am both delighted and honoured to find myself in this position and I am determined that, through working together with the Alliance, we will have a positive impact on the quality of life in Argyll.”
He acknowledged that he and Councillor Walsh had not seen eye to eye in the past, but added: “Over the last few years Bute and Cowal councillors have worked together as a team on the Area Committee addressing the problems of the area.
“I have no doubt that we will continue to work constructively in the interests of Argyll and Bute.”
He said that the circumstances now were considerably different from the Rainbow Alliance of a few years ago. “There was a 19-17 split then,” he said. “It broke down in mid-session because the balance changed. This time around we have a proper coalition with an effective majority, and I have no doubt that we can make it work.”
Other positions announced were Convener Elect, Councillor Billy Petrie (Independent, Lomond North) and Vice-Convener Elect, Councillor Isobel Strong (SNP, Isle of Bute).
The consequences of the election are that no party has a majority, and a number of coalition permutations were possible. The Independents remain the largest group, with 16 councillors.
The SNP is the second-largest party, with 10 seats, the LibDems have seven, and the Conservatives three.
No single party or group, therefore, could form an administration, but the power-sharing deal brings the two largest parties together in the strongest possible coalition.
These positions are termed ‘elect’ until they are ratified at the first full council meeting next Thursday, 17 May.


COUNCIL “ARROGANCE” OVER UPROOTED GRAVESTONES
Since we ran the story last week on gravestones throughout the area being uprooted we have been inundated with letters and phone calls.
Without fail, every single one of the people who have contacted us have been outraged over the way the situation has been handled by Argyll and Bute Council. Most of those have also been extremely upset and angry, whilst telling us their own heartbreaking story.
Amongst those who contacted us was Mr Hastie from Sandbank. He feels that the problem of unsafe headstones only started when the council changed the grass-cutting machinery from normal lawn mowers to the heavier, four-wheel type.
He said: “They are far too heavy. They get stuck in the grass and the vibrations have caused the stones to weaken. They also leave tyre marks all over the place. I have spoken to the council in the past and been told that they are looking into it.”
Mr and Mrs Pursley from Dunoon also contacted The Observer. Their son sadly passed away a decade ago and they were appalled when they were tending to his grave recently, to notice a yellow cross on the side of the stone. Appalled, that is, because they thought it had been vandalised.
After noticing several more stones in the cemetery had similar markings they contacted the council, only to be told of the plans to uproot all those that were deemed unsafe.
Mrs Pursley personally spoke to Alan Lothian, Head of Roads and Amenities for Argyll and Bute Council, pleading with him not to take the stone down. She promised that they would get it strengthened over the next few days. Unfortunately her pleas fell on deaf ears and the next time she visited the cemetery she was dumbfounded as the stone was laying on the ground.
We were also visited by a woman whose father’s gravestone is in Cowal Cemetery in Sandbank. She too, was angered when she went to pay her respects and found the stone on the ground.
She said: “If I had been given any warning or indication then I would have got it fixed. My father’s gravestone has only been up for eight years and there was nothing wrong with it. I have now arranged to get it fixed before my elderly mother sees it.
“The council have gone about it totally the wrong way; they have been arrogant.”
It would appear, however, that Argyll and Bute is not the only district affected by these heartless acts. Tens of thousands of gravestones across Britain are being toppled by local authorities, often without the knowledge of the relatives of the deceased.
In Edinburgh, for example, furious relatives are considering taking legal action against their council citing the fact that they were not given any notice whatsoever that the headstones were to be repaired or removed.
See Safety Valve on page 9 for some of the correspondence we have received regarding this matter.


Mather pulls it off
LAST week’s election made the headlines on two counts; the victory of the SNP over the incumbent Labour party, and the shambolic consequences of running the elections for the parliament and council on the same day, coupled with an electronic voting system which proved an abject failure when it came to delivering the goods.
The big news locally was the victory of the SNP challenger, Jim Mather, over the sitting MSP, George Lyon.
The last time around, in 2003, Mr Mather was beaten into third place behind the Conservative candidate, and polled 19.63percent of the vote, a long way behind Mr Lyon’s 35.13percent.
However, in the interval Mr Mather has been very high-profile in the constituency, particularly in Cowal, and has become involved in many contentious issues.
His performances in last year’s ferry debate, and at the recent hustings meeting, were impressive, and his support for the Dunoon-Gourock vehicular ferry contrasted sharply with the last-minute conversion of his opponents to the cause.
An election leaflet produced by Mr Lyon for Cowal consumption on the ferry issue did not, it seems, have the desired effect, since Mr Mather took the seat with 9,944 votes, a swing of over nine percent.
The turnout was 28,792, and at nearly 59 percent was among the highest in Scotland.
Mr Lyon, who was deputy finance minister in the last government, was not on the list, so his political career is over, at least for the moment.
However, Conservative Jamie McGrigor, whose performance at the hustings meeting impressed with its brevity and wit, remains in the Scottish Parliament as a list MSP.
Also entering the Parliament as a list MSP for the South of Scotland is local man Mike Russell. Mr Russell, who lives in Colintraive and is a former chief executive of the SNP, was a strong contender for the Argyll and Bute constituency nomination, but was defeated by Mr Mather.
The Single Transferable Vote system applied to the council elections produced a dramatic shift in the balance of power, with the Independent Group losing its overall majority.
The complexities of the STV system mean that there is no means of establishing the level of support for candidates. They either get in or they don’t.
Among councillors standing for re-election in Cowal, only one, the Independent Gordon McKinven, failed to gain a seat.
He was edged out by long-time SNP campaigner Alister MacAlister, who joins Dick Walsh and Jimmy McQueen, both Independents, representing Dunoon Ward 7.
The SNP also got a seat in Cowal Ward 6, where Ron Simon and Alex McNaughton from Colintraive, standing as an Independent, join the sitting councillor, Bruce Marshall (Independent).
There was no change on Bute, with the return of the two SNP councillors, Isobel Strong and Robert Macintyre, and Len Scoullar, an Independent.
Alison Hay, the Liberal Democrat was returned in Mid-Argyll, as were Independents Donnie McMillan and Trevor Philand.


Dismay over ORANGE LODGE MARCH
A MARCH by members of the Orange Order through a quiet Argyll village has been greeted with dismay by local residents.
And the fact that one of the organisers of the march is a community councillor has caused further concern.
The march took place in Strachur on Saturday afternoon and involved a small number of local supporters and a busload of lodge members brought in from elsewhere.
The parade went through the village and terminated at Strachur Memorial Hall.
Community Councillor Rae Black said that a lot of people in the village were unhappy that permission to hold the march had been granted in the first place, as it was felt to be inappropriate for Strachur.
She was concerned that the views of the community had not been canvassed to establish whether or not the march should take place.
Her understanding was that, while in the past permission had to be sought from the council, it was now a matter for the chief constable.
However, a call to Strathclyde Police HQ at Pitt Street cast some light on the situation.
“The responsibility for giving the go-ahead for any procession lies with the local authority,” said a police spokesman. “The role of the chief constable in the case of this or any other march is to establish whether there is adequate resources or stewarding.”
A council statement on why permission was granted was short and to the point; it said: “We are only consulted on parades with regard to traffic concerns and received none.”
It would seem, therefore, that no view was taken of the appropriateness of the parade in the village. One enraged correspondence called it “a celebration of bigotry and hatred’ and another denounced it as ‘the poison of central belt bigotry’.
However, Archie Reid, who is a member of Strachur Community Council, and who was involved in organising the march, was reluctant to discuss the matter with the Observer.
He said that he could see ‘no problem’ with the village being a venue.
He did not believe that it would offend other villagers, whether Catholic or not.
He denied that the Orange Order was a sectarian organisation. Asked to explain exactly what it did stand for, he refused to do so, saying that “he wouldn’t be allowed to”.