Deputy leader of SNP Group resigns

 

Deputy leqder of the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar SNP Group, Cllr Calum Macmillan representing Barra, Vatersay, Eriskay and South Uist has resigned from the group and joined the ALBA Party as of today 30th March 2021.

Cllr Macmillan was elected in 2017 and was recently elected to the position of deputy leader of the group.

Group leader, Cllr Gordon Murray commented :" Obviously, I am very disappointed to be losing Calum from the group. he was an excellent councillor, wonderfully astute and supportive and a great team player. His contributions to the group and also in the council chamber were invaluable and I am very fortunate to have worked alongside him. We all wish him the very best in the future and hope to continue to work with him on issues   that benefit our communities in the Western Isles."." 

Comhairle SNP Group seek council support for Local Electricity Bill

 At full council on Wednesday 31st March , Comhairle SNP Group leader, Cllr Gordon Murray has tabled the following question

Would the Convenor agree with the Comhairle SNP group’s long held aspiration to harness our God-given energy resources by converting these to carbon free energy and thus replenish our coffers annually to help address funding deficits and capital projects?

and following the question, I have tabled the motion below.

That Comhairle nan Eilean SIar  

(i) acknowledges the efforts that this council has made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote renewable energy; 

(ii) recognises that councils can play a central role in creating sustainable communities, particularly through the provision of locally generated renewable electricity; 

(iii) further recognises • that very large financial setup and running costs involved in selling locally generated renewable electricity to local customers result in it being impossible for local renewable electricity generators to do so, • that making these financial costs proportionate to the scale of a renewable electricity supplier’s operation would create significant opportunities for councils to be providers of locally generated renewable electricity directly to local people, businesses and organisations, and • that revenues received by councils that became local renewable electricity providers could be used to help fund local greenhouse gas emissions reduction measures and to help improve local services and facilities; 

(iv) accordingly resolves to support the Local Electricity Bill which, if made law, would make the setup and running costs of selling renewable electricity to local customers proportionate by establishing a Right to Local Supply; and 

(v) further resolves to instruct the Chief Executive to:- • inform the local media of this decision, • write to local MPs, asking them to support the Bill, and • write to the organisers of the campaign for the Bill, Power for People, (at 8 Delancey Passage, Camden, London NW1 7NNor info@powerforpeole.org.uk) expressing its support. 

Cllr Murray stated: "This is a hugely important bill for our situation here in the Western Isles and I hope that the Comhairle will support our motion n the strongest possible terms."

Uist and Barra councillors fight for their abattoirs

 A proposal by the council to withdraw support from the Uist an£ Barra abattoirs is being opposed by Uist and Barra councillors Calum Macmillan and Donald Manford.

The two SNP councillors are to put forward an amendment to a report proposing that the Comhairle 

“include funding support for the abattoirs in Uist and in Barra to bring parity to the abattoir provision across the Islands in the CnES authority area through the provision of twenty thousand per facility, funding to be provided from balances previously saved on loan repayment charges.”

The councillors are trying to save the abattoirs which would struggle to survive without the support proposed. 

Campaign for fixed link from Benbecula to Skye

 Cllr Calum Macmillan and Cllr Donald Manford have called for a special meeting of the Comhairle last week to include the Benbeula - Skye Fixed-link into the Local Transport Strategy. 

The matter will be discussed at the full council meeting of March 31st and Cllrs Macmillan and Manford will hope that the long term aspirations of the comnuity are realised. 

In his request for the fixed link to be added, Cllr Macmillan continued :"The fixed links from Barra to Eriskay then Harris to Berneray are to be included in outline as extensions to connect the Long island from Ness to Bhatharsaidh with the Benbecula-Skye fixed link."

Comhairle Budget and Non-Competent Items

 As Councillors, we seek election to Comhairle to improve standards, bring work and implement changes to governance which facilitate constituents to work, invest their time, money and effort to create prosperity and generate incomes for their families. A help up, not a handout and this needs competent budgeting.

Comhairle is legally required to set a balanced competent budget for the next financial year with items given a portion of finance otherwise the Budget is not competent. One councillor wanted to delay the Budget Setting for a few months to see where we were. He was indulged and the work to set the Comhairle Budget continued.

The SNP Comhairle Group tabled three amendments to the Budget which applied across the whole of the Comhairle area, to devolve benefit to all Islands and all constituents. These amendments are legally correct, administratively competent and financially prudent. 

Donald Manford and JohnA tabled an amendment directing money to road surfacing from savings on money previously committed by Comhairle to the Bernera Bridge replacement. Funding for the Bernera Bridge is now being provided by the SNP Scottish Government. The amendment sought reinstatement of the historic 60:40 portioning to Lewis and Harris: Uist and Barra. This amendment was rejected 23:8.

Rae Mac Kenzie and John Mitchell tabled an amendment to provision Winter Gritting by two hundred and fifty thousand pounds from Balances to avoid the annual overspend currently projected for this year at nearly seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds. This amendment was rejected 19:12.

Gordon Murray and I tabled an amendment in five parts. Directing money previously committed for Bernera Bridge to surfacing unadopted roads (60:40), an all-weather play area at Stornoway Primary to replace the all-mud play area, a dental chair for the dental facility in Daliburgh currently missing the dental chair, concessionary fares on inter-island ferries and support for abattoirs in North Uist and Barra as support for the Stornoway Abattoir was included separately. This amendment was rejected 19:12. 

The failure of Councillors to support this amendment has caused controversy with some Councillors stating that they couldn’t support the Stornoway Primary as other areas and islands would also benefit. 

The amendment would have allowed work to start at Stornoway Primary with immediacy and hopefully be finished by June 2021. The option voted for, requires a report to committee in June ‘with a view to securing finance’ yet this is being touted as being the better option.

The Comhairle Budget requires to be financially competent with each budgetary item being given a spend limit. We are now told that there is no upper spent limit on this financial revenue item which would make the Comhairle Budget financially non-competent. Comhairle voted through a non-competent budget as there is neither financial provision nor spending limit on what can be expended on the improvements to replace the current all-mud play area at Stornoway Primary.

When I am then told the Council Leader said ‘...’ I simply reply ‘remember what the Council Leader said to Calum Mac Lean at the Comhairle called to consider RSHP. We voted on the issue per his precise words, yet then recall, we were told that the writing on the paper is what counted’. The words on the papers to Budget Setting Comhairle state ‘that a Report be submitted to the June 2021 series of meetings with a view to securing finance’. A ‘Report be submitted ... with a view to securing finance’ must therefore now be the starting point when considering how the all-mud play area is being progressed. 

This can be compared with Gordon Murray’s amendment which had proper financial provision and a real time as soon as possible start date. The fact that a decision to not start work but to get a Report to committee is being hailed as the better option shows a lack of empathy with the parents who send their children to school where they play in the mud and with the children who have to play in the mud.

As to the dental chair provision in Daliburgh Cllr Roddie MacKay stated ‘that ship has sailed’ which encapsulated the attitudes and perceptions that we must set out to change and replace with community empowerment and community embedded facilities. The Scottish Government’s OHIP sets out the aspiration to continue Childsmile in the community and the complimentary role of the Public Dental Service in providing domiciliary care for our ageing population.

Work continues to deliver all the proposals in these amendments. Every opportunity to provision road surfacing, winter gritting, replacing the all-mud play area at Stornoway Primary, providing a dental chair in the dental facility in Daliburgh, concessionary ferry fares and supporting all abattoirs across the islands to promote a croft to customer product, continues.

Yous sincerely,

Calum Mac Millann

SNP Councillor,

Uidhist aghus Barraidh.