A.    Labour grab further seat on Executive After the elections in May Labour took 13 of the 20 seats on the Executive Committee. This represented 65% of the seats although they only have 56% of the councillors in the City. Now they are taking a further seat giving them 14 out of 21, i.e. 67%. The actual person (Irfan Rabbani) and post (Equalities Spokesperson) were welcomed by opposition parties but the lack of proportionality on the committee was deplored by them. Therefore, the SNP moved for an additional 3 opposition seats to redress the balance but this was defeated.

B.    Non-Payment of Fixed Penalties Councillor Grant Thoms asked about Clean Glasgow fixed penalties and in particular how many had not been paid. Labour's Ruth Simpson admitted that only 64% were paid for June and 69% in July. She portrayed this as good news but in reality it is incredibly disappointing that over 30% of litter droppers, etc are getting away with it.

C.    Unusually Informed Debate! A Green Party motion seeking a better balance between air travel and the environment led to one of the most informed debates in the Chamber since May's elections. All four major parties took part. (Only The Tories and Solidarity were notable for their silence.) For the SNP Grant Thoms and Graeme Hendry confirmed that aviation is important to the Glasgow economy but that planes landing and taking off with hardly any passengers was of benefit to no one. They also supported duty on aviation fuel rather than a per passenger tax. The Greens accepted both the SNP and LibDem amendments so the combined opposition mustered 28 votes against labour's 44.