Angus Council: £20m Arbroath town board falls at first hurdle in argument over chairperson selection panel

A new town board is being established to decide how £20 million of levelling up cash will be spent in the next decade.

Arbroath was the only Angus town to be included in UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s announcement of the £200m Long Term Plan for Towns fund in this year’s budget.

Angus Council is now searching for a community figurehead to chair the new board.

However, despite elected figures such as councillors being allowed to sit on the panel, they are barred from taking the chairperson’s role.

What sparked council disagreement?

At a policy and resources committee on Tuesday, councillors sought to put together nominations for the panel that would consider the chairperson nominations.

Five councillors were nominated:

Beth Whiteside (SNP)

Kenny Braes (SNP)

Mark McDonald (SNP)

Derek Wann (Scottish Conservative and Unionist)

Ross Greig (Scottish Conservative and Unionist)

However, Arbroath Independent councillor Lois Speed put her name forward for the sub-committee but was rejected due to concerns over conflicts of interest.

Council leader Beth Whiteside told councillor Speed: “There were a couple of considerations.

“One was that five was considered a good number so there wasn’t an even split.

“The other was, given there may be a requirement for elected members on the board itself, there may be a conflict of interest in Arbroath members being involved in the nomination of the chair.”

However, it was then raised that nominee Derek Wann is also an Arbroath councillor – leading to the decision being delayed until the end of the week.

The chair of the board must be appointed by June 1.

Following this, the rest of the board would be appointed with the first meeting hoped to be held in the summer.

An initial three-year investment plan and 10-year vision for Arbroath must be submitted by November 1.