Move to strip Councillor Rowley of his Executive role

by OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT EDITOR

A group of nine members of Scottish Borders Council have signed a requisition order seeking to remove suspended Tory councillor Mark Rowley from his influential role as Executive Member for Service Delivery and Transformation.

The move, brought under the local authority's Procedural Standing Orders, follows last month's decision by the Standards Commission for Scotland to suspend Councillor Rowley - he represents a Berwickshire ward - from attending council meetings from May 20th until midnight on June 16th.

A hearing in front of Commissioners concluded that Mr Rowley had breached the councillors' Code of Conduct on three occasions in 2022.

The breaches related to Mr Rowley's failure to declare his employment as a Strategy Manager with South of Scotland Enterprise at three council meetings held between February and August 2022, when matters linked to, or that could have impacted on the work of South of Scotland Enterprise, were being discussed.

SBC Standing Order Number Nine states: "A special meeting of the Council may be called at any time by the proper officer, or by them on being required to do so by the Convener, or by them on their receiving a requisition in writing for that purpose specifying the business proposed to be transacted at the meeting. 

"Such requisition must be signed by at least one-fourth of the whole number of members of the Council (i.e. nine Members), and the meeting shall be held within fourteen days of receipt of the requisition by the proper officer.

The signatories to the order - it will come before a full council meeting on June 13th - are Elaine Thornton-Nicol (SNP), Fay Sinclair (SNP) Viv Thomson (SNP), John Paton-Day (SNP), Marshall Douglas (SNP), Donald Moffat (SNP), Robin Tatler (Independent), James Anderson (Independent) and Neil MacKinnon (Scottish Green Party).

The requisition order states: "Consider request to remove the Executive Member for Service Delivery and Transformation from their role based on no confidence in their ability to carry out the role fully".

Councillor Rowley is a former Leader of Scottish Borders Council, and has also held the economic development portfolio.

A statement issued by the Standards Commission after a panel heard about the complaints levelled against Mr Rowley by fellow council members, included the following: "In reaching its decision on sanction, the Hearing Panel noted that Mr Rowley had co-operated with the investigative and Hearing processes, and had a previously unblemished record as a councillor. The Panel accepted Mr Rowley had registered his employment and, as such, there was no suggestion he had tried to hide or conceal his interest.

"The Panel agreed, nevertheless, that it was necessary to impose a suspension in order to reflect the seriousness of the breach, to promote adherence to the Code and to maintain and improve the public’s confidence that councillors will comply with the Code and will be held accountable if they fail to do so."