Joined-up government took another great leap forward last week when East Dunbartonshire’s combined education and leisure services committee met under a changed political regime.
The Liberal Democrat-Conservative administration that replaced the previous Lib-Lab alliance lost no time in ringing the changes and put Glasgow teachers firmly in charge of the educational affairs of Greater Bearsden.
Eric Gott, recently retired from Woodside Secondary in Glasgow, is the new convener, while his depute is Patricia Steel, still at the chalkface in Glasgow’s Holyrood Secondary. Gott praised the great complementarity of education and leisure which would “enrich the quality of life of people in East Dunbartonshire”.
Those who have left this life are clearly going to get looked after as well, since the longest and liveliest (sic) discussion featured the dangerous condition of headstones in the council’s cemeteries.
Seven councillors, no less, chipped in and a 20-minute debate concluded with a coalition agreement to set up an inquiry (now where did they get that idea from?) into “headstone stability”.
Even teachers’ rep Frank Healy was moved to take part, querying the legal position if a council wished to rearrange vertical headstones horizontally.
Well, it sure beats Higher Still.
