Highland Council has voted overwhelmingly to declare no confidence in five councillors who backed the continuation of taxi operator licences held by convicted rapist David Brown.
The motion was carried by 56 votes to six at Thursday morning’s full council meeting in Inverness, with five councillors abstaining.
Councillors Sean Kennedy, Chris Birt, John Grafton, Ruraidh Stewart and Duncan Macpherson were named in the motion following the controversial licensing decision taken on 23 June.
A sixth councillor who supported the decision, Willie Mackay, resigned from Highland Council in July.
Brown had been convicted of raping an 18 year old female passenger and sentenced to six years and nine months in prison.
Six male members of the Highland Licensing Committee subsequently voted to take no action against his taxi operator licences, while four female members voted for them to be revoked.
Brown later surrendered the licences himself.
Thursday’s vote delivered an emphatic condemnation of the five remaining councillors involved, but Duncan Macpherson used the debate to defend the reasoning behind his decision.
He said:
“My position was never taken lightly, nor was it motivated by disregard for public opinion, or the concerns of residents and I must make it clear that from the outset of the meeting, the devastating impact on the victim of this heinous crime, perpetrated by the operator licence holder, was at the forefront of my thoughts.
“My rationale was based on the information, professional advice, statutory obligations, and legal considerations available to the licensing committee at the time.
“As committee members, we are often required to make difficult decisions that involve balancing competing interests and responsibilities.
“While reasonable people may disagree with the outcome, my decision was made honestly, conscientiously, and in what I believed to be in the best interests of all, including the safety of the wider community.”
Macpherson also argued that because the licensing meeting had been held in private, he was unable to disclose everything discussed and therefore could not fully defend his decision in the public council chamber.
So what happens after a council votes overwhelmingly that it has no confidence in five of its own members?
The immediate answer is that all five remain Highland councillors because a vote of no confidence by fellow councillors does not overturn the democratic mandate given to them by voters.
The motion therefore represents a formal and highly significant political condemnation rather than the removal of the five members from elected office.
Their ultimate position as councillors remains a matter for the electorate if they choose to stand again when Highland voters next go to the polls.
The more immediate question is what today’s result means for any positions of responsibility held by the five councillors within the authority.
That question becomes particularly significant after a vote as decisive as 56 to six, because the overwhelming majority of their fellow councillors have now formally recorded that they have no confidence in them.
Thursday’s vote has therefore settled one question emphatically.
Highland Council has declared that it has no confidence in the five councillors.
What happens as a consequence of that decision is now the question facing the authority.
