West Dunbartonshire councillors are set for a showdown over who will lead the next administration at a special meeting this afternoon.

It has been almost a month since the shock announcement from Labour leader councillor Martin Rooney who advised that the group would resign their leadership and senior council positions with “immediate effect” as it was clear they no longer had a sufficient number of votes to get a budget through.

The decision was made at the end of a full council meeting in August which saw SNP councillor Karen Murray Conaghan elected as the new Provost of West Dunbartonshire who has since taken over from the former Provost Douglas McAllister. 

In the past month, the chief executive has been notified of a number of resignations by individual members of the council which has created a number of vacancies on committees and working groups.

The decision made by the council leader on Wednesday, August 28 has also resulted in a number of senior councillor positions becoming vacant including the leader of council, depute leader of council and depute provost.

This was subsequently confirmed in writing following the council meeting. On Thursday, September 12, all Labour councillors had formally stepped down from their political leadership and had requisitioned a special council meeting to decide the future and direction of the council.

A document available online and circulated to members advises that the main issues to be decided in the meeting are making sure that all vacancies are filled as soon as possible so that the council can be run effectively.

We contacted Labour leader councillor Martin Rooney and SNP leader councillor Gordon Scanlan ahead of today's meeting but neither elected member  provided comment on the agenda.

Commenting previously on the decision to call a special council meeting, Labour group leader Councillor Martin Rooney said: “Our communities elected each of us to serve and we remain committed to delivering for our residents.

“We have high ambition for the people here and promise to deliver for them in the most challenging of financial times.

“However our opponents must stop playing games and instead focus on delivering for our constituents.

“We will always put the interests of the people of West Dunbartonshire first and it is vital that we don’t allow the uncertainty over the political direction of the council to continue.”