This week local authority leader Councillor Peter Grant welcomed the announcement that Scotland's 32 local authority chief executives had agreed to forego the pay award they were entitled to receive under a previously agreed pay deal.

He told the Fife Herald yesterday (Thursday), ""The decision confirms our view that the best place to conduct pay negotiations is at the negotiating table and not in the pages of the press.

"Fife Council's Chief Executive Ronnie Hinds approached us several months ago and told us he was personally prepared to forego the award but believed it was in the best interests of Scottish Local Government to look for agreement across all councils before any public statement was made.

"We are aware that confidential discussions are still underway at a national level to explore whether other groups of staff may be willing to forego all or part of their previously agreed pay awards.

" We call upon all members of Fife Council to allow these discussions to take place and to avoid the kind of irresponsible behaviour that could prevent the talks from reaching any kind of agreement."