Five SNP Councillors led by the Development & Regeneration spokesperson, Cllr Kenny McLean, on Wednesday challenged the Labour administration through a 'call-in' procedure at the Finance Scrutiny Committee. The aim was to stop Labour's 'control anything and everything' approach to the re-establishment of Area Committees, and suggested that the Labour administration learn to trust the people to know what's best for their area.
 

At the meeting Labour accepted that the new Area Committees and their remits would be subject to future review. But they refused to accept any form of real devolved power. Instead Labour councillors argued that because they had a majority of councillors in the City, it was essential for all area committees to be controlled by Labour. Even if a four member ward had only one Labour councillor, the chair must still be Labour! It was clear that the Labour Party do not trust ordinary people.

Development & Regeneration Spokesperson for the SNP, Councillor Kenny McLean, said, "This smacks of 'control freakery' gone mad. One of the key lessons of the 2007 elections is that the Labour Party must learn to trust the people and in doing so, should have allowed Area Committees to choose their own chairperson. It looks like Labour are sticking their heads in the sand rather than coming forward with proposals which are democratic and empower local representatives."

In the vote at the end of the Committee meeting Labour pushed through their plan to impose chairs on each area committee, defeating an opposition amendment to allow each committee to choose its own chair.