| Group leader Ken Guild said that because the numbers on the council are so tight, it might only take one by-election to swing things the party’s way.
He said party members viewed themselves as an administration in waiting rather than just an opposition.
The SNP is the largest single party on the council with 13 of the 29 seats.
But, for the second time in succession, it has been frozen out of power by a combination of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. Labour with 10 seats and the Liberal Democrats with two have formed a coalition, which the three-man Tory group has decided to support on an issue-by-issue basis. To that extent the situation is much as it was in the last council, but the difference is that this time the three parties together can only muster 15 votes, the bare minimum required for a majority.
At last week’s statutory meeting of the council, the coalition got it’s nominees for the major committee convenerships and deputes as well as lord provost and depute lord provost through on a 15-14 vote margin, Independent councillor Ian Borthwick having voted for the SNP nominees.
Mr Guild pointed out that it would only take one by-election won by his party at the expense of a Labour, Lib Dem or Tory seat to remove the coalition majority and put control of the council administration into the melting pot.
He said, “It is our duty to uphold the interests of Dundee as best we can and to challenge the administration if we think they are getting it wrong. But, given how tight the numbers are on the council, we see ourselves as an administration in waiting, not just an opposition.”
Mr Guild said the SNP has a very experienced team of councillors in Dundee, with only three of the group new to the council, and he was confident they would be ready to run the administration if the opportunity arose. |
