Argyll and Bute Council this week rejected a local South Cowal community bid to buy out the Castle Toward estate, a project campaigners say would have provided at least 80 new jobs and generated millions of pounds of economic benefit. After rejecting the bid, the council revealed it would ‘review the behaviour’ of council members after some councillors backed the community instead of the council leadership. This came on top of a week of revelations alleging a culture of fear, intimidation and bullying within the council. Here, Councillor Michael Breslin of Argyll and Bute – who backed the community on Castle Toward – argues that change is desperately needed in the local governance of the area
THE debacle over Castle Toward is bad enough, but it’s only a symptom of a wider malaise within Argyll and Bute Council. Local government isn’t local in most parts of Scotland, but it is miles even further away from being local here.
People in Argyll do identify themselves as being from here, with the possible exception of Helensburgh and Lomond, but the interests of, say, Dunoon residents are often quite different from somewhere else, like Oban for example. This isn’t parochialism, it’s just reality when Oban is 80 miles away and a place many Dunoon residents have never been to.
I was fortunate to have been the principal of Argyll College for many years before I retired and not only do I know most of the area well, I also know just how diverse it is and how closely people identify with their own patch much more than the area as a whole.
There is no question; I will be one of targets of this political vendetta for the crime of doing my best to represent the interests of my ward.
This leads councillors to being in a position where they can make decisions with complete impunity in the full knowledge they will never be fully accountable to the bulk of the electorate. Yesterday a Tory from Helensburgh and an independent in the misnomer of a group called Argyll First carried a motion that ended the Castle Toward community buy out bid and which instructed officers to investigate the behaviour of certain councillors.
There is no question; I will be one of targets of this political vendetta for the crime of doing my best to represent the interests of my ward.
But there is also a stranger twist to this story in that another two ward councillors, Dick Walsh and James McQueen, both opposed the buyout. Walsh is the leader of Argyll and Bute Council and has been so on and off (mostly on) for many years. He is a wonderful stopper of any ideas he doesn’t dream up himself.
A complete re-organisation of local government won’t sort the danger posed by retiring councillors, but we badly need change.
You would think that with 10,500 people signing a petition in support of the buyout, and public support from the First Minister, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, 24 MSPs, 13 councillors and more, he would have behaved differently, but he chose otherwise.
He isn’t accountable, either, because he won’t be standing again. Nor will McQueen, and so they don’t care how much hostility they create against themselves.
A complete re-organisation of local government won’t sort the danger posed by retiring councillors but we badly need change, and soon, to a much more local form of local government. Without legislative change – which could take some time – it may be feasible to pilot something in Argyll and Bute under existing legislation, because people here are sick to death of our council. Alex Neil, communities secretary, needs to consider this if trust is to be regained at a local level.
However, in the meantime what’s needed is an independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Castle Toward since 2002, the point at which all of this can be traced back to.
Unanswered questions remain, and the community deserves answers.
Click here to read more about allegations of bullying and intimidation at Argyll and Bute Council.