First Moray president of COSLA reflects upon 'fast-paced' start
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The first Moray councillor to become president of COSLA – the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities – has reflected on a busy past few months.
Shona Morrison (Focahbers/Lhanbryde, SNP) was voted into the £30,000/year role in June.
One of the first jobs facing her was to take part in negotiating a pay deal for council workers, after strike action by refuse collectors left rubbish piled up on city streets.
She admits it was not an easy start but a resolution had been found to the dispute.
Ms Morrison said: "The pay negotiations have been very challenging.
"The goal was to ensure the workforce knew they were valued.
"Ultimately we got to a position where a better offer could be made and that was accepted by the three unions.
"It would have been naive to think the job wouldn’t be fast-paced, but it would have been nice to have been able to catch my breath.
"However it’s not the worst way to learn, hitting the ground running."
The umbrella body for Scottish local authorities, COSLA provides leadership and representation at national level with the aim of helping councils create better and more equal communities.
Priorities for Ms Morrison and the COSLA team include coming up with a new five-year plan focusing on the organisation’s priorities.
There is also a Local Governance Review under way looking at the relationships between communities and councils with Scottish and Westminster governments and devolving power to more local levels.
The push towards local democracy is one of the reasons Ms Morrison stood for election.
She said: "I got into politics because I’m passionate about my community.
"It’s about wanting local government to do the very best we can to represent our communities."
With Orkney councillor Steven Heddle taking on the vice-president job and other spokespeople coming from Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire, Ms Morrison believes the team has good representation from across the country.
She said: "It’s fantastic for Moray to have a president of COSLA – that’s not me blowing my own trumpet.
"That locality of local government gives a completely different perspective.
"I think we bring a really balanced view to COSLA, and there’s some fantastic experience there."
While "deeply honoured" to be voted in as president Ms Morrison wants to dismiss the idea that the SNP runs the organisation.
She said: "We have 32 council leaders in COSLA … it’s disingenuous to say it’s solely SNP.
"The leaders run COSLA and, ultimately, they decide policy."
Ms Morrison believes there will be "fully intense discussions" between COSLA and the Scottish Government over the National Care Service that will also include the third sector.
There have been concerns over consultation for bill and fears local autonomy and good practice could be lost.
She said: "The most important thing is to get the best outcomes for service users."
