Greens want to banish religious representatives from voting on education at Highland Council
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Two Greens Highland Councillors have called for religious representatives to be barred from voting on the local authority’s education committee as they are currently permitted to do.
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 obliges Highland Council to appoint three religious representatives on the education committee in part because of the large number of denominational schools in the country.
In the north the religious representatives have voting rights though in reality they are rarely used but Inverness West Councillor Ryan MacKintosh and Fort William and Ardnamurchan Councillor Kate Willis want to change that.
In a motion to the full council meeting later today they argue: “There is no legal requirement however for these representatives to have a vote. The Scottish Government has clarified that 'voting rights on committees are a matter for each authority.'
“In line with the above clarification statement by the Scottish Government, Highland Council agrees that only elected members of the council with a mandate from the electorate should have a vote on the education committee.”
They stated: “New research shows a sharp decline in religious identity. Around 1 million less Scots now identify with Christian groups compared to 2011, when 53% of Scots identified with a Christian religion. That figure has now dropped to 33%.
“Given these findings it seems bewildering that we allow unelected religious representatives the ability to vote on the education committee. Fundamentally no one who is unaccountable to the electorate should be able to vote on public policy and it’s clear that decisions relating to education should be done on a democratic basis by people who are held to account by the electorate.
“Faith groups who wish to participate in discussions relating to local education may still do so in the same manner as any other interested local community group.”
The matter will be discussed on Thursday and if accepted a motion would compel the council to take action but it remains to be seen if it will have sufficient support.
