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Labour cheat over election rooms |
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Friday, 04 November 2005 |
Labour booked rooms for the by-election in Knightswood Park before the other parties even knew if Charlie Gordon was resigning!
The Council only had one empty shop within the ward (172 Archerhill
Road) and the Labour Party expressed an interest in this on Monday 3
October. Expressing an interest effectively means booking
it as the Council operates a "first come first served"
policy. Then on Wednesday 5 October the Council's Property
sub-committee approved the letting of premises for a by-election for a
nominal rent of £50. The paper on this was only tabled at
the meeting and had not been on the agenda. This was the
first "official" indication for opposition parties that there was going
to be a by-election soon. (Potentially Charlie Gordon could
have held his Council seat until the next Council elections in 2007, as
Tommy Sheridan did from 1999 to 2003.) After the meeting
the SNP inquired about available premises but were told there was
nothing in the ward. It later transpired that the available
rooms had been allocated to Labour.
SNP Group Leader John Mason wrote to the Chief Executive, George
Black, calling for the disputed premises not to be used by any party
during the by-election. However, the reply was that Labour
would be allowed to use them.
To any fair-minded person this is a clear abuse of power by the Labour
Party. They have used Council facilities for party
political advantage. Now a reference to the Standards
Commission or other appropriate body will be considered by the SNP.
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