Local Government Committee, 27 Oct 1999

Meeting date: Wednesday, October 27, 1999

Official Report 173KB pdf

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Scottish Parliament Local Government Committee Wednesday 27 October 1999 (Morning)

[The Convener opened the meeting at 10:02]

Good morning and welcome, colleagues. I welcome Wendy Alexander; it is good to see her here this morning. I also welcome Ted Davidson and David Middleton, who are becoming old friends of the committee—it is the third time that we have seen them here. It is good to have them back again.

I will briefly review our proceedings. Wendy will take a few minutes to address us and then I will open the meeting for questions. The normal procedure is that a member indicates a wish to speak. She or he gets one question and a short supplementary. If the supplementary wanders all over the place, the member will be pulled into line. This is usually quite a well-behaved committee, but we will see how members do this morning. They have had a break, so they might be back fighting fit.

We are scheduled to meet from 10 until 12, but the meeting might not take as long as that. The sooner we start, the sooner we will finish, so I should be grateful if Wendy could begin her address.