CUTS in the number of local council meetings in Helensburgh will harm local democracy, it has been claimed.

Argyll and Bute Council members agreed last week to reduce the number of 'area committee' meetings – in Helensburgh and Lomond and elsewhere – from six per year to just four.

But the new council leader says the move has been driven, at least in part, by budget cuts – and has insisted that she is committed to seeing local communities getting more involved in decision-making.

Criticising the move, made at the first full council meeting since the May 4 election, opposition SNP group leader Sandy Taylor pointed to Audit Scotland's report on the council's work in 2015, which told the authority to “ensure a more effective contribution from area committees”.

Cllr Taylor said: “[The] decision, made purely in the interest of saving money, reflects the low value placed on these meetings by administration councillors.

“By contrast, opposition councillors clearly value these regular meetings as one of the best ways for them to meet with their communities in order to gather opinions, and for their constituents to see them in action, locally, where they live and work.

"It is ironic that one of the new administration’s first decisions has been to do away with the one thing that is actually proven to work, in an area in which we are being asked to improve and increase our engagement with our communities.”

The new council leader, Helensburgh councillor Aileen Morton, said she wanted to see the authority engage local communities by other means, such as through community planning groups.

Cllr Morton told the Advertiser: “Cuts to the council's 'governance and law' budget were unanimously supported in February 2016. That means there is reduced capacity for council officers attending area committee meetings.

“The vast majority of area committee meetings are about councillors and council officers talking and councillors taking decisions.

“There is now a 'public question time' built into area committee agendas, but a lot of people aren't comfortable with the idea of standing up and giving their names to ask a question in that way.

“We have had very clear feedback that the Scottish Government doesn't see area committees as being the best way to take 'localism' forward.

“There are other bodies, such as community planning groups, which are all about community empowerment, community engagement, working with partner agencies and pursuing that localism agenda, and I want our aim to be to pull in local communities and get them involved in decision-making in that way.”

Former Helensburgh councillor Vivien Dance, who did not seek re-election in the May 4 poll, said: “It is not surprising to hear that the new council has decided to centralise more decision making to Kilmory. It has been obvious for months that they do not wish local people to see them in action and intend to centralise everything to remote Lochgilphead.

“This is totally contrary to the strong recommendation from Audit Scotland that decision making must be returned to local area committees, and of course the thinking of the Commission on Strengthening Local Democracy, who urged all councils to take an approach that meant people could see their local councillors in action, watch how decisions are made so that local communities are an active part of that process.   

“However, most people have little interest in the politics of Kilmory. What is relevant to most people who have a proper job, and are having to work harder for the same or less money in these hard times, and paying the increase in their council tax this year, is that one of the first decisions of this new bunch of councillors has made is to cut the number of meetings for themselves, meaning they all work less for more pay this year.  

“All councillors now earn a minimum of £17,000, and for some this will be for just attending ten meetings - four area committees and six council meetings.  

“Additionally with Kilmory being the centre of everything, there is an annual cost to the taxpayer of at least £150,000 per year in travel and subsistence costs for 36 councillors.   

“But until the Scottish Government totally brings about the long overdue reform of  local democracy - including of course why we need 32 expensive councils to govern less than six million people - decisions like this are within the remit of newly elected councillors for the next five years.”

The first Helensburgh and Lomond area committee meeting since the election will take place on Tuesday, June 13.