AREA roads could soon be looked after by a new joint scheme with two other councils.

West Dunbartonshire councillors voted to move forward with a plan with East Dunbartonshire and Inverclyde to set up a Joint Committee with sharing road services as the “most obvious” area over which to team up.

The Labour administration insisted at the full council meeting last week that they met with three unions days earlier and the plan was supported.

But there were doubts from some councillors as to how widely staff had been consulted.

Council bosses said a Joint Committee - made up of equal number of councillors from each local authority - was an alternative to approaches such as in Glasgow where services have been sectioned off into arms-length organisations. Those are still largely funded by the public but less accountable.

One of the councils will become the “lead authority”, in charge of delivering the best deal on equipment and services to meet the needs of all three authorities. Staff will be employed by the lead authority on existing terms, said Councillor David McBride.

Four trade union officials, from Unite, Unison and the GMB, met with top councillors last Monday, he said.

Cllr McBride explained that WDC would choose which roads to fix or grate or other work, but the Joint Committee would deliver to the best deal.

He said: “Each council will have their own regime, but sharing costs of senior managers. The biggest savings will be from not having to go out and hire specialist equipment. The savings are no huge but there will be savings.

“These are the services that are vital but where cuts can be done.”

He added that the approach appeared to be working well in Ayrshire currently.

Councillor Jim Bollan said “consultation” and “signing something off” were different things and said the motion before the full council only said there was a meeting.

He said: “Nowhere does it tell me the trade unions have agreed this or signed this paper off. I have to assume from this motion they have not agreed to this.

“This report needs to go back to the unions for consolation with the members. They need to sign it off and if they do, then it should come back to the council.”

Cllr Patrick McGlinchey, who was at the meeting with the unions, insisted they did agree and if not, the motion would not be going forward. He said the plan would be similar to aspects of the old Strathclyde Regional Council.

All councillors supported the plan going forward except Cllr Bollan and Cllr George Black.

The partnership of three councils could eventually consider arrangements beyond roads, such as parks, cemeteries, street cleaning, environmental services and others.

In a statement after the meeting, Cllr McBride said: “This council has faced unprecedented budget cuts from government in recent years, at the same time as demand for services has increased.

“This partnership approach offers us the opportunity to deal with that challenge by sharing our assets across local authority boundaries so we make the most of all our combined skills, talent, knowledge and equipment.

"For example, sharing the purchase of a new pothole-fixing vehicle between Councils could save taxpayers money and improve the quality of our roads.”

A Joint Committee could be formed in 2017 according to the current proposals.