Wednesday October 7th 2026
”West
West Lothian’s ruling Labour administration has issued a robust defence of the council in the face of Holyrood’s consultation on scrapping the current council structure.
Branding the plans announced by the First Minister as a ‘power grab’, council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick told a meeting of the executive that the fundamental change was needless.
Fellow Labour councillor Danny Logue said the proposals had the detail of being “drawn up on the back of a fag packet.”
SNP councillors abstained, the three party members on the Executive, refusing to put up an amendment to a motion they had branded a political stunt.
Councillor Fitzpatrick’s motion said: “the council was large enough to deliver strategic services such as Education, Housing, and Social Care, with strong performance and high quality, yet small enough to remain close to its citizens, take account of local need in all aspects of service delivery, and maintain excellent customer service.”
It called on the council to instruct: “the Chief Executive be instructed to write to the First Minister, President of COSLA, and West Lothian’s constituency MSPs requesting that they support the continuation of West Lothian Council as a local authority serving the people and communities of West Lothian.”
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting in Livingston yesterday the SNP group leader Janet Campbell said: “The difference between the reform discussions currently taking place and Labour’s motion is simple. The reform process is about engagement, consultation and gathering evidence.
“Labour chose to turn that into a political campaign against proposals that have not yet been agreed. The SNP believes decisions of this scale should be based on facts, evidence and meaningful consultation, not political posturing. That is why we abstained.”
Seconding the Labour motion Linlithgow’s Tom Conn had called on the SNP to show cross-party support for the council in the same way the party’s councillors had done in a recent vote by Perth and Kinross Council.
After the motion was carried without debate Councillor Fitzpatrick told the LDRS: “This motion was a matter of democracy.”
He added: “This local government reform is not in the SNP manifesto, The Scottish Fiscal Commission has given evidence to prove that since 1999 the Scottish Government Civil Service has risen 98%, from 14,600 to 29,000. Local government in the last two and a half decades has fallen by 35,000 workers. This is clear evidence of centralisation.
“The Scottish Government points to low turnout in elections in local government, but in the Scottish parliament election barely one in two voted.
“The problem with local government is the lack of money. If you look at our Operational Services alone, we have dropped from 120 operatives to 60. There are 20,000 jobs at stake in the public sector. That’s the only way they can save £5m.”
Linlithgow Lib Dem councillor Sally Pattle told the LDRS the reforms “focus on a three-month ‘engagement’ window, but there is no information on how this engagement is to be carried out and with whom.
“Jenny Gilruth claimed that every person in Scotland would be able participate, but when questioned, had no idea how this would happen.”
Councillor Pattle added: “And of course, the window closes in less than three months from now, around the same time as the Scottish budget is expected.
“The SNP claim that local government is failing the communities they serve. Perhaps this is because over the past two decades, funding has been stripped meaning deep cuts to services – losing organisational skills, expertise and goodwill along the way.
“These new proposals make no mention of the potential impact on the workforce, no mention of the outcomes of the past nine years of the Local Government Review or Democracy Matters.”
The SNP Group criticised Councillor Fitzpatrick for closing the meeting without discussion. It noted that Labour’s motion praised West Lothian Council’s strong performance while recognising that engagement with the Scottish Government is ongoing and that future proposals should be assessed as more information becomes available.
Depute SNP group leader Councillor Maria MacAulay said: “We support strong local services, local democracy and the dedicated workforce that delivers for our communities every day.
“However, it would have been irresponsible to support a motion seeking to preserve the status quo before any final proposals have been published, consulted upon or assessed.
“In our opinion, the Chair abused the power he has as Chair by abruptly closing the meeting without allowing dissent to be noted. These proposals have Community Empowerment at their heart – the SNP Group has called out for further empowerment for all of our communities – this has been denied by West Lothian Labour”
Councillor Campbell added: “Our position is clear. We will carefully scrutinise any future proposals and will always stand up for the people of West Lothian. What we will not do is play politics with a process that is still ongoing. The SNP will continue to support an evidence-led approach that protects local services and puts communities first.”
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