Strathclyde Fire Board head survives pension storm vote

By PAUL DRURY
Published on 12/10/2012 00:00

members of Scotland’s biggest fire board yesterday tried to unseat its convener over a pension deal for a former firemaster.

Joe Lowe survived the “no confidence” motion by 15 votes to five as members rounded on him for his part in awarding the deal to Brian Sweeney, who retired from Strathclyde Fire and Rescue last year, collecting a lump-sum pension payment, but who was re-hired a month later in the same £150,000-a-year job. It landed council tax payers with a potential bill for £236,000.

Members of the Strathclyde Fire Board, meeting in Hamilton, were asked to agree a response to a damning report by the Accounts Commission, which criticised the size of the deal awarded to Mr Sweeney Had Mr Lowe lost the vote, he would have had little choice but to step down.

The Controller of Audit at Audit Scotland, Fraser McKinlay had concluded that Mr Sweeney’s deal “would not meet the public’s expectations of what is an acceptable use of public funds”.

Yesterday, board member John Anderson suggested there was a discrepancy between what was agreed at a previous board meeting and what was written in a subsequent account of the meeting.