Councillors agree new leadership structure

March 9, 2017 at 4:34 pm

OIC councillors and officials stood for a photograph to be taken in the chamber today, just before the last Full Council meeting of this term of the council took place. Orkney’s voters will go to the polls on May 4, to select the county’s next 21 councillors.

The way in which the OIC is led is set to change in the next council term after councillors today backed – at Full Council level – an earlier recommendation to create posts of a “political” leader of the council, and a civic head.

The post of depute head will also be created, as councillors today backed the earlier recommendations of the policy and resources committee for such a move.

This will lead to a structure which will see the existing roles of convener and vice-convener scrapped.

They will be replaced by the posts of political leader and depute leader, and the title of convener transferred to the civic head of the authority.

Councillors at the last meeting of the Full Council to be held in this session of the council, today agreed to the new structure, which will be put in place following the election on May 4.

At the same meeting there was an attempt made by Councillor Stephen Clackson to make the new leadership posts last only half the term of the council, before again being put up for election.

However, the move failed to win enough support to be carried, with the posts now due to run for the full term of the council.