THE SNP is expected take control of the body representing Scotland's councils for the first time, a move predicted to create very public tensions over cuts with Scottish Government party colleagues.

The Herald understands that the four authorities which split from Cosla several years ago will rejoin the organisation within the coming weeks, with local government again represented by a single body.

Insiders and experts in local government anticipate the SNP will take on the presidency of Cosla, the only time in the organisation's 42-year history the post will not be held by a Labour politician.

Gerry Braiden: Rolling over for the party cause will not be a good look for an SNP Cosla president

But with further major spending cuts coming down the line, along with the touted reform of councillors, the Nationalist who will become the country's leading councillor will be required to go toe to toe with ministers in defence of local government.

Professor Richard Kerley, one of Scotland's leading authorities on local government, said: "I expect those councils which have left Cosla to go back in and to there then by an SNP Cosla president.

"This could cause some embarrassment on both local and national government. The new president will have to make a lot of noise representing local government and its hard to see how people would sit quiet and simply accept the centralising agenda or cuts to council budgets."

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The professor of management at Queen Margaret University added: "There's nobody within the Tory ranks with the stature or length of service who strikes you as being a potential president. But neither is it immediately obvious who would step up from the SNP."

One senior SNP source said: "Of course there'll be differences but it won't a case of going picking fights. It'll be more the debates the SNP has internally about these tensions being played out in public."

Dave Watson, Unison's bargaining and campaigns organiser in Scotland, added an SNP-led local government would have little or no impact on cuts coming down the line:

He said: "The chief executives of councils will be telling their new leaders that they have been putting off making difficult decisions and that the next two years will see the Scottish Government's budgets even less favourable than they have been.

"Regardless of the outcome of the local elections the reality is the Scottish Government doesn't have much room and the cuts will fall again on local government."

Gerry Braiden: Rolling over for the party cause will not be a good look for an SNP Cosla president

Aberdeen, Glasgow, Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire, all then Labour-led, quit Cosla three years ago in a row over where power lay within the organisation and formed their own breakaway group, the Scottish Local Government Partnership.

In the past month Cosla executives have met with the senior management teams of the four councils, where it was indicated they supported rejoining the fold. With Labour removed from power in all four, that appears inevitable.

Sources within Cosla have not yet ruled out a Tory becoming its president but believe the more likely scenario is an SNP leader.

Meanwhile, Professor Kerley said there was a likelihood that the SNP position of not working with the Tories to run any councils could come undone, with some localised deals having ramifications for national political relationships.

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He said: "All of these councils, with the exception of those run by independents, will have to find, in their different ways, accommodation, either through coalition or some mutual back-scratching relationships and this will produce some curious outcomes.

"The line that 'we won't work with the Tories', well the SNP or whoever might have to swallow that and in return for example a deal to have a Tory Provost or convenor there is an expectation of support elsewhere.

"Where there are Green/SNP deals, which is a more likely scenario, this is something which could then also play out in the Scottish Parliament, where the Greens could be a position to demand more for the Government in exchange for that localised support.

"The other aspect is that there are lots of appointments required to outside bodies. There's a whole raft of these things and you're talking up to 100 or so internal and external appointments in some councils. A lot of these could be decided by the cut of a deck of cards or the toss of coin."