LABOUR and the SNP are at loggerheads over the number of candidates being fielded for next week’s local election in South Lanarkshire, with Labour being accused of “not even trying” to win control of the authority before a single vote has even been cast.

The Labour group is putting forward 32 candidates but with 64 council spots up for grabs, a party needs 33 councillors to win overall control. A total of 23 councillors – 14 Labour, six SNP and three Tories – are not standing for re-election.

However, the SNP group, who have 37 candidates in the running across the area, have accused their Labour rivals of relying on a deal with the Conservative group to retain leadership. Council elections use a complex single transferable vote system to elect councillors for multi-member wards.

The SNP, which many believe could take the reins of the council, the country’s fifth biggest by population, said it was “obvious that Labour are not even trying to retain control of the administration”.

SNP group deputy leader, Sheena Wardhaugh, said: “After Boundary Commission changes, there will be 64 councillors in South Lanarkshire. To gain control would require 33 candidates to be elected.

However, Labour are only fielding 32 candidates. Even if they were all elected, which is not going to happen, they would not have overall control. Last time around, they had 33 councillors on a 67-seat council. The aim is clear – another Labour/Tory coalition. Thirty-seven SNP candidates are standing in South Lanarkshire, enough to take control of the administration.

“These candidates are a mix of experienced sitting councillors and vibrant, enthusiastic new faces, all of whom passed a rigorous assessment to find those who can best support their constituents when they have problems.”

Wardhaugh is standing again in the East Kilbride Central alongside her husband Jim, also an SNP candidate, this time in the East Kilbride East ward.

The council is currently run by the Labour group with Rutherglen Central and North’s Eddie McAvoy at the helm. However, is stepping down at the election as he plans to retire after 17 years as leader of the authority, making him the longest-serving in Scotland.

The council area takes in rural and upland areas, market towns such as Lanark, Strathaven and Carluke, and the urban burghs of Rutherglen, Cambuslang, and East Kilbride which was Scotland’s first new town.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Labour Party hit back at the SNP’s accusations saying: “Council elections work under a system of proportional representation and local parties make decisions about the number of candidates to field.

“In South Lanarkshire, Labour candidates stand the best chance of beating the SNP whose candidates are fixated on a second, divisive, referendum.

“Only Labour have a plan to move South Lanarkshire forward, standing up for the NHS and focusing on delivering the valued, quality local services people need and want, such as schools and social care.”

During McAvoy’s time in charge, he oversaw the council’s ambitious schools modernisation project as well as its Home Happening scheme – which co-ordinated adaptations for older and disabled people with modernisation projects – and roads investment programme. However, the authority has faced severe budget cuts in recent years. Last year, Wardhaugh accused McAvoy of “political grandstanding” after a last-minute U-turn on more than £5 million of cuts in this year’s budget.

A former shop steward at the old Hoover site in Cambuslang, McAvoy was elected to South Lanarkshire Council in the inaugural election in 1995. After announcing his decision to stand down, he vowed to continue to work hard right up until the last minute.

He said: “When I then step down it will be in a South Lanarkshire which I believe has prospered over the last couple of decades, and one which has a bright future. Even before I became a councillor I spent my time working to make life better for ordinary people, as a shop steward.

“Over 20 years as a councillor, and especially in the last 17 years as council leader, it has been a great privilege to do that for people across South Lanarkshire.

“Ultimately it is for others to judge the work I have done, but I think I can point to a number of significant achievements, many of which have been life-changing for local people.

“I am particularly proud that we have improved the lives and life chances of all our young people, through our schools modernisation programme.”

Other Labour councillors standing down are Ralph Barker , Alex McInnes, Jim Docherty, Chris Thompson, Janice McGinlay, Brian McKenna, Denis McKenna, Russell Clearie, Richard Tullett, Pam Clearie, Hugh Dunsmuir, John McNamee, and Monica Lennon, who is now an MSP.