THE Labour administration at Clackmannanshire Council has sensationally walked away from power, just minutes after voting in a new leader.

In a dramatic turn of events, the group officially resigned at Kilncraigs in a ludicrous special meeting this morning.

Clackmannanshire does not have a budget yet, but a three per cent council tax rise has been approved.

On Tuesday, Cllr Bobby McGill was ousted by his Labour colleagues over his policy to use compulsory redundancies to plug the funding gap at the local authority.

He was then replaced by Cllr Graham Watt at around 10am today, but less than an hour later his party walked out.

Labour's actions come just nine months after the SNP group resigned, following a heated row over standing orders.

This morning, minutes after taking power, Cllr Watt submitted an amendment to Labour's proposed budget paper which would have reversed a previous decision voted through by elected members.

It proposed to remove the council's ability to force through compulsory redundancies "at any stage and therefore seeks to withdraw a council decision made less than six months ago".

A Standing Order required the provost and the council to be satisfied circumstances have changed in a relevant way in order to revoke the decision.

Elected members were split evenly on their opinion and the provost had no casting vote over the issue.

This meant the amendment was deemed incompetent and a vote on the proposal itself could not go ahead.

Another recess was called and when they returned, the Labour group tendered their resignation as the ruling party at Clackmannanshire Council.

Cllr Watt remarked that his tenure is likely the shortest in history and said his party could not support the paper without the amendment, performing a U-turn on the previous leader's views on a balanced budget.

Councillors called another recess, and SNP Cllr Gary Womersley was elected to chair the meeting.

He and council officers previously highlighted the council tax rates had to be set today.

The chair firstly called for a new provost to be elected. SNP group leader Les Sharp proposed Cllr Womersley, who was duely elected again.

A three per cent council tax rise, proposed in the original budget paper, was then approved.

However, it was decided the rest of the budget will have to be debated and approved at a later date.

The Advertiser is hoping to speak to representatives from both parties later today.