Why Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Frank Ross should quit council’s SNP group – John McLellan

Is Lord Provost Frank Ross trying to tell us something? He still dutifully pings out social media messages in support of independence, but just how loyal is he to the local SNP effort? Judging by the events of last week, not very.

Readers may be forgiven for forgetting that Cllr Ross was all set to lead the SNP in this council until the day after the 2017 election when he was ousted by the faction led by the new intake of left-wingers who replaced him with Adam McVey and was handed the Lord Provost’s chain as compensation.

He’s made a reasonable fist of chairing council meetings, although his application of his detailed knowledge of debating rules has not extended to clamping down on the more personal attacks from some of his party colleagues who like dishing it out but are less than happy when it comes back their way.

But in the last fortnight his tolerance has snapped, tracking back to last year when the SNP-Labour administration engineered the destruction of Marketing Edinburgh on whose board he sat, and the recent rejection of an investment plan for the rebuilding of the Corstorphine Community Centre in his ward and in which, by contrast, he had invested a considerable amount of personal reputational capital.

The dam began to burst on February 11 when, as reported in this column, he wrote to the new board appointed to wind up Marketing Edinburgh, Councillors Kate Campbell, Mandy Watt and Claire Miller, demanding they scotch a “rumour” that the previous board had left the company in a precarious financial position. The rumour-monger has never been formally identified, but it was clearly someone with a vested interest in painting as negative a picture of the old board as possible so the company’s closure looked unavoidable.

But then last Wednesday after the report into the Christmas Market planning permission and building warrant fiasco was published in advance of this week’s Policy & Sustainability Committee, Cllr Ross squarely laid the blame at the door of council chief executive Andrew Kerr. “Is this not a failure of senior officer management which Andrew Kerr heads?” he asked on Twitter, a singling out of an individual which, as he would know, could risk referral to the Standards Commission. Illustrating the depth of the schism, this is apparently being discussed within his own group. The moment of truth came on Thursday when, as he had warned colleagues, he could not support his party’s budget which left out a financial commitment for the Corstorphine Community Centre and abstained, so breaching SNP collective responsibility rules which could lead to his suspension.

His future boils down to how much he and his group care what happens; the SNP’s ruling faction don’t seem to give a stuff about what he thinks, and having seen colleagues Gavin Barrie and Clare Bridgman also walk away because of their dislike of their direction I doubt he gives a hoot about them either.

A truly independent Lord Provost would be no bad thing in an increasingly toxic environment and the SNP-Labour cabal don’t have the votes to oust him from the chair, but it’s unlikely to make much difference to decision-making as the rump of the Labour group cling to their responsibility payments to keep the SNP in charge, to increasing grassroots fury, while the Greens bring up the rear.

Then again, if the Edinburgh Party of Independent Councillors grew to four then it becomes harder for the administration to justify the exclusion of the new group from committee positions, a spiteful decision to keep the Greens happy.

If Cllr Ross really wants to make a statement about how badly this city is being managed, he would abandon a group who thought the civic chain would keep him tethered. If he has the same courage as Cllrs Barrie and Bridgman he can show some real independence and join them.