News / Political, not personal
FRUSTRATION at the speed of change in the way Shetland Islands Council is governed lies behind the decision by Lerwick South member Gussie Angus to resign as chairman of the powerful services committee.
Speaking on Thursday night, the 70 year old SIC veteran said that having a single committee responsible for 80 per cent of the council’s budget was “anti democratic” and the pace of reform was too slow.
Mr Angus resigned by email on Thursday morning immediately after chairing a meeting of the super-sized committee, created under former chief executive Morgan Goodlad.
The council issued a press release citing “personal reasons” for his decision, but it now appears to be a politically motivated move in response to the way the council is run.
Under the current improvement plan being spearheaded by new chief executive Alistair Buchan, the services committee will be broken up. Smaller bodies will take responsibility for its constituent elements of housing, education, social care and community development.
The current timetable is for a new structure to be in place by 1 May, but this is not soon enough for Mr Angus.
“I have held on as long as I could hang on. It’s not moving fast enough for me,” he said.
“Having one committee responsible for 80 per cent of the budget is anti-democratic and the scope of the thing is too big for one chairman to do justice to.
“I have been considering this for some time. There is never a right time, there is always some burning issue that you feel you ought to be there for and don’t want to walk out of, but I think the time is now.”
Mr Angus talks of concentrating on his role as the SIC’s European spokesman, where his experience of the corridors of power in Brussels will be useful in the search for £300 million to build four tunnels – a challenge if ever there was one.
But he is unlikely to remain a quiet backbencher. Privately he has been highly critical of the way the council is run and the way he has been treated as services committee chairman.
It emerged at Thursday’s committee meeting that he had not been consulted on the controversial report to keep charging for music tuition, which was eventually passed on his casting vote. Word is that this is not the first time.
He has been frustrated to find senior office bearers voting against council policy on the Blueprint for Education and was kept “out of the loop” on the ultimately doomed plan to build a new high school at The Knab.
In late 2009 his concerns over governance were revealed when his signature appeared on a letter to council convener Sandy Cluness seeking answers about the way former chief executive Dave Clark was recruited and managed.
Fellow councillors have already expressed their shock at his resignation, saying how he will be missed at the helm of the SIC’s biggest committee.
He is one of the few members with experience working inside the council administration, having risen to become depute director of social work in the 1980s.
As an elected member he has been recognised as perhaps the most effective and experienced political operator in the chamber – tough, outspoken and well informed.
The Lerwick bagpipe player may well not be staying on the back benches for long.
A private seminar on restructuring the council held immediately after his resignation on Thursday looked, amongst other things, at splitting in two the role of convener and creating a political and a civic head.
On Thursday evening one councillor described him as “a natural leader”. If the split goes ahead, Councillor Leslie “Gussie” Angus may be asked to take up one of those two roles and return to the fore of the SIC as it struggles to resolve the problems that brought The Accounts Commission to Lerwick Town Hall last June.
And unlike some and to the surprise of many, he intends to stand at the next election
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