First to attack was Labour's Alex Mosson, followed by the SNP's John Mason, and others. There is something fundamentally wrong with thinking of residents as customers and the Council as a business selling services. Most of us think of a customer choosing a shop and choosing which item to purchase there. However, the Council provides services like bin collection on behalf of the citizens as a whole. Using a word like "customer" is not a minor detail; rather it can affect the whole relationship of residents and Council.

Although the committee has no decision-making power under Labour's flawed new system, staff were left in doubt that most councillors found the term "customer" unacceptable.