Labour group take control of Strirling Council after sealing Tory deal

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Labour have taken control of Stirling Council after the party’s Chris Kane was elected leader at a council meeting yesterday (Thursday).The first full meeting of the local authority following the recent elections saw the early signs of the new Labour minority administration taking shape, with the Stirling East councillor being backed by a majority vote.Veteran Labour councillor Margaret Brisley was elected as the council’s new deputy leader.Meanwhile, Conservative councillor for Dunblane and Bridge of Allan, Douglas Dodds, has been chosen as Stirling’s new provost.

He was appointed after securing 13 votes in favour of the move, coming from the seven Tory and six Labour councillors. There were nine votes against, from the eight SNP members and independent councillor Alasdair Macpherson, with Green councillor Alasdair Tollemache abstaining.After taking the chain of office, the new Provost said he appreciated it may not be a “popular choice” with some but that he hoped to as good a job as any of his predecessors.

During later debate he warned that proceedings should be conducted in a “civil manner”, adding: “We are here to represent the constituents of Stirling.”On Wednesday, we told how the council looked set to be heading for a Labour minority administration after the party gained backing from the Tories.The previous council administration was SNP/Labour but Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar made clear that no such partnerships would be repeated following the recent election.Click here for more news and sport from the Stirling area.Councillor Kane insisted that, while following talks the Conservatives appeared to have agreed to side with Labour to get them over the line, the negotiations had not strayed into policy