Duration of approval of council coalition agreement

Following the May 2022 local elections, the Edinburgh Green councillors negotiated a coalition agreement to form a minority administration with the SNP. In line with section 6 of the party constitution, the agreement was approved near-unanimously by the Edinburgh branch committee on 23 May, and at a branch meeting on 24 May with 97% of members in favour.

Unfortunately, our proposed coalition was defeated, as Lib Dem and Conservative councillors voted a Labour minority administration into office. There is no written coalition agreement between the three parties, and as a result the administration consists of just 13 of 63 councillors. Two of these Labour councillors abstained from the vote in protest at replying on Tory support.

As a result, the administration appears to be highly unstable, and there is a reasonable prospect of it collapsing within the next year. Given this, in the event of the Labour administration collapsing, we would be well-placed to take over, in coalition with the SNP.

This motion would enable us to enact the agreement and form a coalition administration with the SNP in this scenario if it occurs in the next year, without requiring us to repeat the branch vote. This would avoid an unnecessary additional branch meeting, and requiring members to repeat a vote on an agreement they have already approved overwhelmingly. It would also enable us to act quickly, if the need arose.