Edinburgh council by-election - Conservatives and Labour win double contest in Colinton/Fairmilehead

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The Conservatives and Labour have each won an extra seat on Edinburgh City Council in a double by-election in the Capital's Colinon/Fairmilehead ward.

Tory candidate Neil Cuthbert comfortably topped the poll. And with two vacancies to fill, it was a close fight for the other seat between Labour and the Lib Dems, but it went to Labour's Conor Savage.

The counting of votes had been scheduled for Friday morning, but because of the red weather warning due to Storm Eowyn, it was brought forward to immediately after the polls closed at 10pm on Thursday.

By-election victors: Consrvative Neil Cuthbert and Labour's Conor SavageBy-election victors: Consrvative Neil Cuthbert and Labour's Conor Savage
By-election victors: Consrvative Neil Cuthbert and Labour's Conor Savage | supplied

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A team of counting staff was assembled at short notice and the result was declared at around 12.15am.

The by-election used the Single Transferable Vote system, where voters rank candidates in order of preference. Tory Neil Cuthbert had a strong lead in the first round of counting with Labour’s Conor Savage in second place, closely followed by the Lib Dem Peter Nicholson. And it remained like that right through to the final round, when Mr Nicholson was finally eliminated with 1,380 votes to Conor Savage’s 1,615.

The turnout was 31.9 per cent.

The by-election came just 10 weeks after another by-election in Colinton/Fairmilehead, which was won by Lib Dem candidate Louise Spence, who resigned a week later after it emerged that, despite promoting herself as a local champion, she had put her house up for sale and was moving to Dubai.

The other vacancy arose when the ward's SNP councillor Marco Biagi also resigned a few days after the November 14 by-election because he had been made a special adviser to the Scottish Government.

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The result will give a boost to Labour, who have run the city as a minority administration since the 2022 local elections, but have recently had to cope with the resignation of council leader Cammy Day over allegations of inappropriate behaviour, which left them with just 10 out of the 63 seats on the council. Winning an extra seat despite the circumstances is good news for the administration.

The Tories, who were reduced to the smallest group on the council at the 2022 elections, will now be on a par with the Greens with 10 seats.

But the result is a setback for the Lib Dems, who hailed their previous by-election win as a spectacular victory.

New Tory councillor Neil Cuthbert said: "Colinton faces real challenges - improving transport links, maintaining our roads, protecting green spaces and supporting our schools. I’m going to work tireessly to repay the fath people have put in me, being accessible to everyone.”

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It’s third time lucky for Cllr Cuthbert after he stood in the 2022 local election and the November by-eletion.

Labour victor Conor Savage said: “I thank the people of Colinton, Oxgangs and Fairmiehead for putting their faith in me and I can’t wait to start delivering for them - rebuilding trust in local poitics, protecting our green spaces and ensuring effective transportation and infrastructure.”

Lib Dem group leader Kevin Lang said: “Given the events that followed the last by-election, we were always realistic about how much of a challenge this campaign was going to be.

“Many of us in the Liberal Democrats are still angry at what happened, myself included. I’ve no doubt many in Colinton/Fairmilehead felt likewise and voted accordingly.”

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He praised the LibDem candidate Peter Nicholson and added: “This result is a verdict on the actions of our previous candidate, not on him.”

Full results - first preferences

Neil CUTHBERT Scottish Conservative and Unionist 2,027

Conor SAVAGE Scottish Labour Party 1,146

Peter Alexander NICHOLSON Scottish Liberal Democrats 1,009

Mairianna CLYDE Scottish National Party (SNP) 840

Daniel Aleksanteri MILLIGAN Scottish Greens 426

Grant LIDSTER Reform UK 345

Marc WILKINSON Independent 256

Richard Crewe LUCAS Scottish Family Party 65

David HENRY Independent 38

Bonnie Prince BOB 30

Mev BROWN Independent 23 Nick HORNIG Independent 13 Mark NEY-PARTY Independent 5

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