The former leader of West Dunbartonshire Council has branded the authority's current administration "shameful" amid controversy over planned changes to the way the council does its business.

SNP councillor Jonathan McColl hit out after the area's Labour majority administration passed a motion to change several of the authority's standing orders.

One of the changes voted through at Wednesday's meeting will give council officers the power to spend up to £2 million of taxpayers' cash "immediately" and without scrutiny from elected councillors.

Prior to Wednesday's meeting, unelected officials at the authority had to seek the approval of elected councillors to award any contracts worth more than £50,000.

But the change voted through by Labour's members on Wednesday increases that threshold by a maximum of 3,900 per cent.

Councillor McColl warned the council they must be ‘transparent’ to their constituents to avoid any claims of impropriety.

He said: “It seems extreme to be moving from £50,000 to, at a maximum, £2m of delegation - and at a minimum, more than £663,000 worth of delegation.

“That’s quite an increase, even at the lowest level.”

Cllr McColl outlined that the current £50,000 ‘delegation’ in place is in line with other council areas around Scotland, with the only other local authority with similar expenditure limits to the ones proposed being South Lanarkshire, a far larger council area.

He continued: “I have to say I was quite flabbergasted when I saw what was being proposed by officers.

"I think it makes sense to take a pause and make sure elected members have a full report to give them an understanding of the reasons for the change.

“And to avoid any allegations, as we have had in the past, of financial impropriety.

“We certainly regularly get allegations, regardless of who is in administration, that officers are leading this council.

“Well, if we agree the recommendations of the report today, there is no argument that officers are not running the council.

“Because we will be granting officers carte blanche to spend £600,000 and, in some cases, up to £2 million, of public money without any political oversight or scrutiny.

“It is just astonishing to me that we would even consider that.”

The change was one of more than 40 proposed amendments to the authority's standing orders put forward by the Labour administration to Wednesday's meeting.

The new standing order relating to the spending of up to £2 million reads as follows:

"The provision of supplies, works or services will be regulated by these Standing Orders except where there is an emergency involving danger to life or property or [our emphasis - Ed] where the estimated expenditure, inclusive of all consequential costs over the period of the contract, is less than £213,477 for goods and services, £663,540 for light touch services and £2,000,000 for construction (all inclusive of VAT). In either of those cases the Chief Officer concerned may authorise the expenditure immediately."

Under the previous rules, every contract award worth more than £50,000 had to be put before the council's tendering committee - which has a 6-3 Labour majority - for approval.

An amendment tabled by the SNP group also included a request that Labour revisit the political makeup of the authority's sub-committees - several of which currently have no non-Labour councillors among their membership.

The West Dunbartonshire Community Alliance, the area's community planning board, the shared services joint committee and the board of the West Dunbartonshire health and social care partnership (HSCP) have all had no non-Labour councillors since the party seized power as a majority administration in May's local government elections.

Councillor Jim Bollan of the West Dunbartonshire Community Party spoke after Councillor Karen Conaghan, leader of the opposition SNP group, had asked Labour to again look at the issue.

She said: “The administration previously intimated they would reconsider political balance when standing orders were reviewed.”

Cllr Bollan said: “It’s about democracy. It’s about accountability - making sure the Labour party can’t overload committees so that some members can take a holiday and not come to committees.

“You need to get a political balance on our committees, and I think this goes a long way to achieving this.”

Cllr McColl added: “What is the administration trying to hide? That’s the question I am being asked.

“Now, I don’t think you are trying to hide anything, but it looks that way to the public because you are excluding any kind of opposition scrutiny."

The Labour group chose not to make a statement in support of their position.

The SNP amendment, which would have delayed the changes to council standing orders until at least the December full council meeting, was voted down 11-10 in favour of the Labour group's list of amendments.

Once the motion was passed, Cllr McColl, speaking from home during the hybrid meeting, could be heard saying ‘shameful’, although when he was next introduced, he apologised to the meeting for not being on mute.