Friday June 7th 2024
Mark Rowley
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Paul Kelly
Scottish Borders Council will consider a vote of no confidence in its former leader when members meet next week.
Nine councillors have signed a Order No. 9 Requisition Order to remove the Conservative Mid-Berwickshire councillor Mark Rowley, SBC’s current executive member for Service Delivery and Transformation, from his high-profile portfolio role.
The request is “based on no confidence in their ability to carry out the role fully”.
The move comes after Mr Rowley, council leader from November 2021 to May 2022, was banned from attending full council and the executive committee meetings for one month after he was found to have breached the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.
The ban came after he failed to declare his paid employment as a strategy manager with South of Scotland Enterprise (SoSE) at three council meetings held between February and August 2022, when matters concerning, or that could impact upon the work of SoSE, were being discussed.
The judgement was made following an online Standards Commission Panel hearing on Monday 13th May.
The Panel found that Mr Rowley should have declared an interest, withdrawn from the meetings and taken no part in the discussion and decision-making on the specific matters in question.
The nine elected members to have signed off the vote of no confidence are: Councillor Elaine Thornton-Nicol; Councillor Fay Sinclair; Councillor Viv Thomson: Councillor John PatonDay; Councillor Robin Tatler: Councillor James Anderson: Councillor Marshall Douglas; Councillor Neil Mackinnon and Councillor Donald Moffat.
Full council is to meet on Thursday 13th June to consider the matter.
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