The SNP Group on Glasgow City Council today submitted a twenty-signatures request that the Chief Executive prepares for a special Council meeting within fourteen days to continue the business which was curtailed at yesterday’s full Council meeting.

Despite a request to continue the Council meeting for 30 minutes, Labour councillors voted to end the meeting before three SNP motions could be debated. This was after the Lord Provost’s partisanship was called into question when two emergency SNP motions were ruled out by him. This is the third consecutive Council meeting where SNP motions have been guillotined.

The Council’s Chief Executive is now required to set a date for a special Council meeting within the next 14 days.

Leader of the Opposition and SNP Group Leader John Mason said today:

“Today, Glasgow City Council is being called to account by the Scottish National Party, the main opposition to the Labour administration.  For too long now, the Labour Party have sought to control what is said and done in the Council. Now that there are twenty two SNP councillors in Glasgow, we have sufficient numbers to requisition a special Council meeting with a quorum to deal with the business which the Labour administration doesn’t want to take.

“The Labour administration abuses its control of the Council at every step and turn to ensure the opposition parties are kept out proportionately from Council committees, external bodies, etc. Restricting time in the Council chamber is just another of their ways of shutting down debate and dissent.

“We have important issues to debate concerning services for young people, the impact of the 2012 Olympics on lottery funding, and housing for asylum seekers and refugees. It’s important, when so much of what the Council does is dominated by the Labour Party, that opposition parties are given time for real democratic debate.”

Notes:

1. The last three full Council meetings (1 November, 20 September and 28 June) have had the following numbers of motions tabled and subsequently considered:
   Labour: 7 motions submitted, 6 motions debated
   SNP: 9 motions submitted, 2 rejected for the agenda, 1 motion debated
   Green: 2 motions submitted, 2 motions debated
   No motions have been tabled by either the Liberal Democrats, Conservative or Solidarity councillors.
2. The emergency Labour motion agreed by the Lord Provost was dealing with business scheduled for the Executive Committee meeting today (1 November), yet two SNP emergency motions were ruled inadmissible by the Lord Provost (who is supposed to be non-partisan in his convening of Council business).
3. Councillor John Mason moved the suspension of Standing Orders for 30 minutes which would have provided adequate time for further debate but this was voted down by the Labour administration. The SNP have consistently questioned the balance of business and time for adequate democratic debate in the Council chamber but every time the Labour group has ruled in line with their own wishes.
4. The Labour Party are bringing forward proposals which would guarantee one motion per Council meeting for Labour, SNP and other parties on a rota basis,  which in effect would restrict the SNP to seven motions per year.
5. Under the Council’s Standing Order No. 1 (3), 20 councillors can petition the Council’s Chief Executive to call a special meeting within 14 days and this meeting can only deal with the business submitted within the written request.
6. The agenda for the Special Council meeting includes three SNP motions which were guillotined on 1 November, an emergency motion which the Lord Provost refused to be considered and a Labour motion which the SNP believes should be debated.
7. Glasgow City Council is near the top of the league for shortest Council meetings in Scotland.