Provost Christmas Card Comp winners 2018 PIC SHOWS Provost William Hendrie with design winner Katie Mckenzie
Levengrove Park Launch PIC SHOWS Council leader Jonathan McColl opens the Cafe with Provost Hendrie and staff other council members
Caption left to right: Bill Heaney, Amanda Graham, Euan Gear, Sid Perrie, David McBride, Provost Hendrie, Beth Culshaw, Cllr Ronnie McColl, Peter Hessett, Kate Higgins and Lord Sandison.
Elected councillors and local authority executives across Scotland are locked in an escalating conflict over the role, fairness, and perceived weaponisation of the Standards Commission for Scotland, writes BILL HEANEY.
It had to happen sooner or later, and the pot finally boiled over last weekend.
I have been trying for years to persuade the local electorate to take seriously the fact that the councillors they voted into power and members of staff (well, some of the staff, anyway) are a pain in the tail.
My problem, however, is that most folk are feart of them.
The public, like the elected councillors, are afraid that sanctions will be taken against them.
That they could lose their posts or be suspended and lose their salary.
These people are aggressive, hubristic and vindictive.
Basically, they are bullies who are hopeless at what they do and who lose the plot when their mistakes, which cost the public purse £millions, are pointed out to them.
One of them, Councillor David McBride – a senior member of the Labour Group – even squared up to me because I supported in my column the parents and grandmothers of Haldane and the estates around Balloch in their campaign to keep their local library open.
Most of you know too that they excluded me from several meetings and banned me from asking their highly paid spin doctors to clarify matters that had been raised in council and committee meetings.
But I had done nothing wrong. I had simply approached Provost Willie Hendrie, who was in the chair during the lunchtime break, and asked if the sound could be turned up so that the press and public could hear what was being discussed.
They said there was nothing wrong with the sound but went on to replace the system at a cost of £52,000.
Suddenly, there was a disturbance that began when the now Chief Executive, Peter Hessett, objected to me speaking to the Provost, and the Chief Press Officer, Amanda Graham, grabbed my arm. She was joined by some fellow officers, and I told her to “bugger off,” a mild rebuke given that we are in the 21st century.
The then council leader, the SNP’s notorious Jonathan McColl, then said I was Labour and should be thrown out, which, to all intents and purposes, I was. Anyway, I left the building.
Amanda Graham, who is paid handsomely to promote good relations between the press and the public but, in my case anyway, does the opposite, informed me of the ban on approaching her or any of her staff, which has lasted for around six years.
There had been other instances where we clashed. One was after a meeting of the education committee when I wanted to question a Catholic school teacher about an unprecedented event which was certainly newsworthy.
I had never before heard of a Catholic teacher supporting a campaign to close a Catholic school, as Ellen McBride was doing in the case of St Martin’s Primary in Renton.
And I wanted to interview her and take a photograph.
In true Soviet style, Ms Graham took it on herself to smuggle the woman out a back door to the car park and into her car. I got the picture but not the interview.
Similar things are happening across the country. The police, or the court turnkeys, for example, have been known to assist criminals who have been guilty of the most heinous crimes to conceal their identity as they are led from the dock to a prison van, which will take them to jail.
Has no one told Police Scotland’s finest that these people are supposed to be held up to public ridicule as part of the legal process?
Just one more thing. The Health and Social Care Partnership led by Beth Culshaw tried to have a Dumbarton-based GP fired from his job during the COVID pandemic. How daft is that? Sacking a doctor during a pandemic?
Despite a packed public gallery of objectors and a petition signed by 1,000 of the doctor’s patients, which they refused to look at, they made it plain they were answerable to no one and certainly not the press when I told them the GP had nothing to answer for. And I could prove it.
I joined with Conservative ex-councillor Euan Gear to have the decision overturned, but they wouldn’t hear of it. Tensions were running high, and the press and public were locked out of meetings at Clydebank Town Hall and the council headquarters in Church Street. Council officers barred the doors so that no one could gain entry.
Eventually, I went as a witness for the doctor to an Employment Appeals Tribunal where, after hearing my evidence, the judge overturned the committee decision.
They were furious, but they were wrong, as they have been in other important cases which have been running for longer than Jarndyce v Jarndyce, the endless case at the centre of Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House.
So what has brought this and issues like it into the public domain after it having been covered up for so many years?
A high-profile Sunday Mail investigation revealed that frustrated local politicians have slammed the Holyrood-funded ethics watchdog as a “kangaroo court” and a “jumped-up HR department” used by powerful unelected officials to suppress legitimate dissent, public scrutiny, and whistleblowing.
There has been a significant rise in cases going before the courts. Tensions spiked following reports of a 44 percent surge in cases referred to the SCS, with politicians hauled before panels over robust criticisms of budget cuts, institutional failures, and staff appointments.
Glasgow Labour councillor Fiona Higgins launched a landmark judicial review against the Standards Commission after the watchdog blocked key emails and defence documents during an inquiry into a social media post where she accused a senior official of misleading the public over teacher cuts.
In August 2026, Court of Session judge Lord Sandison ruled that the commission acted unlawfully in refusing to admit crucial evidence, handing the councillor a major free-speech victory. Her legal challenge was financially backed by Paul McManus, drummer for the Scottish rock band Gun.
Senior Glasgow councillor George Redmond—who exposed a scandal involving payouts to council executives—publicly stated that an ethics probe against him was “weaponized” to settle old political scores, noting that the severe stress contributed to a major heart attack before his case was eventually dropped.
Other elected members, including Aberdeen’s Jennifer Stewart and disabled Loch Lomond veteran Sid Perrie, who was the Balloch representative on Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park board, similarly challenged suspensions and disciplinary processes handed down for “discourteous” or robust challenges against senior park and council bosses.
Critics and legal figures argue the current code of conduct framework creates a “chilling effect,” deterring local representatives from holding powerful administrative executives to account. Meanwhile, the Standards Commission stated it would carefully review court judgments and evaluate its hearing procedures, fairness protocols, and resource allocation moving forward. The sooner this happens, the better.
The case of local man Sid Perrie is indeed an example of the situation where an elected representative.has been suspended on the allegations of discourteous and or rude and inappropriate comment.
Suspended in absentia with no representation whilst medically unfit there is huge public concern about the case.
Councillors first and foremost obligation is to uphold the law. No ifs, no buts. Upholding the law and providing scrutiny is a very important thing.
But as is so often the case there are those whose interests do not align with scrutiny. The Sid Perrie case may prove no different.
But let us recast what the issue was with Councillor Higgins. She made a comment to the effect that officials had sought to mislead the councillors and public about education cuts. And for that she was pursued for rudeness and discourtesy to a senior official who had in fact left the council.
For her defence Cllr Higgins sought to have admitted email exchanges discovered by FOI and exposing how council officials had discussed how best to present reorganisation in a way that masked teacher cuts.
But having secured these emails the Standards Commision would not allow them to be admitted in evidence. A fair trial it seems was not to be had.
And that, amongst other things, is why Lord Sandison ruled the Commission acted illegally.
Illegal is a strong word and illegality is something that needs to be driven out of public service. And that is what Lord Sandison’s was considering.
Democracy, openess, fairness, and honesty are fragile flowers and need to be cherished.