Last full council meeting of the year was held on Thursday 19th December 2018.

A few elected members excelled as usual, Cllrs Macdonald, Aitken and Swift.

Many simply failed to impress like, Ireland, Lafferty, Fletcher and Buchanan.

Some even took their performance to a new low like, Devlin, Miller, Gilbert and Grant.

Daniel Devlin

Now we are positive that he is a fabulous machine operator, which is his day job.

A refined, articulate and well educated man, given his performance in council, we fear not?

Daniel wholeheartedly refuses to operate his microphone when speaking, therefore his words are not minuted, or heard by the public and the camera does not focus on him at all.

The Provost has given up on him, he now never reminds him to comply, yet all other 17 Cllrs and the additional staff require to do so, but Daniel is a special case.

Let us commence with the declarations of interest, of which there were four. All except Daniel operated their microphones, and the Provost never blinked an eyelid when Daniel did not comply.

Next up we would wish to highlight what would appear to have been an attempt to disrupt an Elected members right to speak in the chamber.

(We would add that this would not appear to have been the first time)

The Provost was at pains to ensure that all elected members were aware of 'standing orders' with regards to 'motions' to the council. Each mover of the motion has 10 minutes to speak in support of the motion, the seconder has 5 minutes to do likewise etc.

Now by way of background a Cllr who has the floor should not be interrupted, however there are two exemptions.

On a :-

Point of order or
Point of information.

The method for doing so is to activate your microphone and say either 'point of order or point of information'.

Await the Provost stopping the speaker and then permitting the person who requested the point to speak.

Cllr David Macdonald commenced with reading out information in support of his motion.

(We have timed this matter on three occasions to ensure accuracy)

At exactly 8 minutes and 37 seconds into Cllr Macdonalds 10 minute period Cllr Daniel Devlin, without activating his microphone or complying with standing orders shouts out. 'Provost, Time, are you timing this'