Deep Freeze

Sometimes there are moments and times within the life of an elected member that you know, even in many years to come, one remembers with great clarity. One of those for me will be the 14th February, 2008. On that day, for the first time, a council budget was put forward under the auspices of a tripartite agreement between the Independent Councillor, the Scottish National Party Group, and the Scottish Conservative Group within South Ayrshire Council.

With the advent of Single Transferable Voting the political landscape of Scotland has radically changed. Councillors have to acknowledge and adapt to these changes because nothing that went before remains. They have a duty to the electorate to respond positively to radical consensus governance with other groups and parties. Not to do so is an aberration of their duty to those they serve by putting party interest before citizen's interest.

Gone are the days when at the cut of a card half of a council were cast out into the political wilderness with no say in the political agenda. What was even worse was those who had voted for them were disenfranchised as well. Pure unadulterated rotten politics.

Now to the deep freeze. As you now know, this year's council tax for South Ayrshire has been frozen. This presents a huge challenge to local authorities from the Scottish Government to freeze the tax not only this year but for the next two and will be an incredible test of your council in trying to achieve this goal. To do so will need the full co-operation of all parties within the council to finally put aside any political differences and work solely for the benefit of all the people of South Ayrshire.For some this may a very difficult decision but we must, and I believe will, surmount our own internal differences for the sake of those we represent.

On a slightly lighter note last week at a recent meeting of Strathclyde Passenger Transport, a very substantial sum of money was allocated to your council for a number of projects. Those of you that know my pet hobby horses will know that I have been advocating the introduction of a fully integrated traffic management system fit for the 21st. century for our town for more years than even I can remember. Now, thanks to this finance, we have the opportunity to see this come to life. All of you know that thanks to a past Duke of Portland we have the fundamental roads layout to engineer an excellent solution to the way we manage our town centre traffic. I am in the fortunate position of being the portfolio carrier for all the roads engineering works that are carried out within South Ayrshire - along with the other Troon councillors' support I mean to bring this to life through worked-up plans, full public consultation and physical works to give us a traffic scheme fit for purpose.

Peter Convery