Highland Council’s new ruling coalition has pledged to go the distance as it brushed off claims the alliance will quickly “fall to pieces”.
Newly-elected Independent, Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors confirmed yesterday that they had struck a deal to take the reins.
Margaret Davidson, the Independent group leader, is now expected to be reinstalled as local authority leader at the first meeting of the new council a week today.
She is also due to name her new front-bench team at the meeting, with high profile jobs likely to go to Lib Dem leader Alasdair Christie and Labour’s Jimmy Gray, as well as Independents such as Bill Lobban, Alister Mackinnon and economics professor Ronald MacDonald.
But opposing SNP councillors, who accused the Independents of agreeing the new pact before speaking to them, predicted the coalition would soon collapse.
Independents formed a minority administration in the last council in 2015 after the Lib Dems quit a ruling alliance with the SNP and Labour groups.
The new Independent-Lib Dem-Labour coalition will enjoy a fragile majority of just four votes.
Council sources claimed last night that the outline of a deal was agreed quickly after last week’s election, prompting the Lib Dems to announce on Sunday that they would not work with the SNP or Tory groups, knowing that they did not need to.
Confirming the widely-predicted alliance yesterday, Mrs Davidson issued a brief statement saying: “We are pleased to announce that a coalition of Independents, Liberal Democrats and Labour councillors have formed an administration to take Highland Council forward for the next five years.
“This is an agreement that provides a sustainable administration for the long term, and represents the widespread opinion across the Highlands.”
Last night, Mr Christie said: “We believe we can work constructively and positively together.
“We’ve had a number of discussions, we’ve gone over some policy areas and we’ve shared our vision and we’re all on the same page.
“We’re setting out with the intention that we will work together for the duration of the council.”
SNP group deputy leader Richard Laird wished the new administration well, but added: “We were very disappointed to be excluded from the negotiations. We think the council needs stability and leadership at this time and we’re not sure how a three-group administration is going to provide that.
“We will provide robust and effective opposition. I suspect given the history of the Liberal Democrats in coalition it will fall to pieces and if it did we would certainly consider entering administration.”
