Labour councillors briefly took control of West Dunbartonshire Council last week – and were branded a “disgrace” for doing so.

Provost William Hendrie was unable to attend for family reasons, and depute provost Karen Conaghan was also not in attendance

The SNP, boosted by independent Bailie Denis Agnew and Alba councillor Caroline McAllister, put forward Bailie Agnew as temporary chair of the meeting.

But they were outvoted by Labour, the Community Party and the Conservatives, who backed Labour group leader Martin Rooney.

With four councillors absent from both main parties, it led to two motions in the meeting where Labour had the numbers to win against SNP amendments for the first time in nearly five years since they lost the last council elections.

During a debate on the performance targets in the council’s strategic plan, which had been agreed unanimously by all councillors, Labour moved a motion stating that 19 of 40 targets hadn’t been met by the council’s staff.

The SNP described it as six targets missed out of 39 and proposed an amendment praising staff for their efforts in the past year.

Cllr Rooney insisted there was nothing party political about the motion, which stated it was simply “a matter of public record that we simply did not achieve the level of performance that we set for ourselves.”

Councillor David McBride added an addendum to their motion to thank staff, but again Cllr McColl fired back.

“Thanking staff was an afterthought from the Labour group and I thank Cllr McBride for thinking to add that because the leader of the opposition did not,” he said. “Only six out of 39 is pretty damn good considering what we had to deal with.

“To say this is not a party political move is farcical. This is a positive report.

“You’re using the strategic plan as a party political hammer. I’m sure the Labour party are trying to take that away from staff.

“I hope that’s reflected in the vote in May. You’re a disgrace.”

Cllr Rooney repeated that the figures were a matter of public record and they were not necessarily the fault of the council or staff.

He said: “We agreed these targets and those have not been met, and to turn around and describe it as ‘extraordinary’ is La La Land.

“We have to improve. That’s a collective challenge to us all.”

Labour’s motion was backed by 10 votes to nine.