Thursday February 27th 2025
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Marie Sharp
East Lothian council leader Norman Hampshire has been accused of ‘shenanigans’ after halting two energy debates in their tracks at a public meeting this week.
Scottish Greens councillor Shona McIntosh was left furious after motions asking fellow elected members to support two energy projects were set aside for further discussions because Councillor Hampshire said they posed ‘significant financial risk’ to the local authority.
One motion, brought by SNP group leader Councillor Lyn Jardine, and supported by Councillor McIntosh, urged the council to support work being carried out by community groups keen to set up local district heating networks.
A second motion brought by Councillor McIntosh and supported by East Lothian Provost John McMillan, asked the council to support a treaty calling for global action against fossil fuel.
Councillor McIntosh was visibly surprised when the fossil fuel motion was called first on the agenda at Tuesday’s meeting despite being listed as one of the last items for discussion.
The motion asked the council to endorse calls for a Global Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty and ask the council leader to write to the First Minister of Scotland, the UK Secretary of State for Net Zero, and to the Leader of CoSLA, to ask them publicly to endorse the principle of the treaty.
She presented her case, seconded by Councillor Lee-Anne Menzies (SNP) as the Provost, whose name was on it, was not in attendance, but before it went to debate Councillor Hampshire, who attended the meeting remotely, called for a postponement to allow it to be brought to a ‘cross party working group’ for further talks.
Mr Hampshire told the meeting: “This motion has significant financial implications for this council, our economy and our communities. I would propose this motion is continued for further discussions at the cross party working groups so we can fully understand the implications this will have.”
His motion to postpone was seconded by independent councillor Kenny McLeod.
Councillor McIntosh challenged the financial claim saying: “I don’t understand what the financial implication will be, we are asking to support a principle and write three letters, is notepaper so expensive there is a financial implication?”
Meeting convenor Councillor Andy Forrest said that as the motion to postpone had been put forward and seconded no more debate could be heard and it went to a vote with the Labour and Conservative councillors backing the postponement by 12 votes to five with the SNP and Councillor McIntosh opposing it .
It was swiftly followed by the motion by Councillor Jardine, which called on the council to recognise the work and generous contributions of communities including East Lammermuir Community Council towards feasibility studies into local district heating networks which take waste and convert it into energy for local housing.
Cllr Jardine called on the council to instruct officers to apply to the Scottish Government’s Heat Network Support Unit to formally seek support for the district heating feasibility study and a smaller heat network proposal being explored by Pencaitland Community Council.
She was backed by Cllr McIntosh who urged fellow councillors not to ‘punt this opportunity down the road’ by delaying any applications, however Mr Hampshire again called for a continuation saying the Scottish Government had made clear that any risks attached to such a project would lie with the council.
He said: “This council’s financial position is unable to do that so I would propose we continue this to look at the details of the implications of this motion and then take a decision.”
He was again seconded by Cllr McLeod and supported by a vote again of 12 to five (Labour/Cons for and SNP and Green against)
Councillor Jardine said members who stopped the motion being debated should be ‘ashamed’.
Following the meeting, she said: “The administration in particular should be ashamed of themselves in terms of using the standing orders to wreck meaningful debate and a little bit of progress in areas that matter to so many of our constituents, especially on a day when we hear that the energy costs are expected to increase significantly again.”
Councillor McIntosh said: “I’m really disappointed with the shenanigans pulled by the leader of the council to stop my motions being heard properly. He had over a week in which he could have engaged with these motions to assuage any issues about wording or clarify what responsibilities they would have entailed.
“The Fossil Fuel non-proliferation treaty motion would not have entailed any financial responsibility on the council, but this was the only reason he gave for delaying its discussion.
Disagreements and scrutiny of policy are a normal part of democracy, but unilaterally throwing power around at the expense of other councillors is not. Labour councillors should be ashamed at enabling this toxic behaviour, which serves none of our constituents well.”
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