Council elections: Want to stop the SNP in their tracks? Vote Conservative – Miles Briggs MSP

As the local council elections reach the final stage, it is clear that the results in many wards will be on a knife edge.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross visits a paint firm while on the campaign trail ahead of the local government elections (Picture: John Devlin)

Five years ago voters across Edinburgh and Lothian, councils made a significant shift and elected a record number of local Scottish Conservative councillors.

Over the last five years, they have been working hard to represent their local communities and help individual residents with local concerns.

One issue which has dominated the campaign is the cost-of-living crisis. That’s why the Scottish Conservative councillors will keep council tax increases as low as possible, while protecting local services.

In these difficult times, we need local councillors to help ensure that every penny of your money is spent as efficiently and effectively to invest in schools, fix roads and support local services. Where possible and budgets allow, Scottish Conservative councillors will vote for the introduction of a freeze on council tax, so that households do not face rising costs.

We know that council tax hits single households hardest. Single parents, young professionals and elderly people living alone face paying higher housing costs because of their personal circumstances.

The single occupancy discount provides 25 per cent relief from council tax for single households. Scottish Conservative councillors will pressure the SNP Government to increase the discount on single occupancy relief to 35 per cent – saving a person £134 per year on an average Band D property and benefitting almost a million Scottish households.

This election is also about change. After 15 long years of this SNP Government, we need to get the focus back onto the issues most important to local people, like cleaning up our streets, investing in local schools, repairing our roads and rebuilding local services.

The SNP and Greens are neglecting these issues with their obsession on trying to secure another divisive independence referendum.

We need the months and years ahead to be about fixing the issues most important to local people.

That’s why voters who want to stop the SNP and get that positive focus on dealing with the local issues that mater need to lend their votes at this election to Scotland’s second biggest party, the Scottish Conservatives.

Labour are already propping up the SNP in six councils across Scotland including here in the Capital, and simply can’t be trusted to stand up to them. And the Lib Dems are just not strong enough to make a real challenge.

That’s why Evening News readers hold the key to who will win the council elections and can actively help stop the SNP and get positive action on the issues that matter most to Edinburgh and Lothian.

So on Thursday, May 5, you can help deliver the change we need to see across Edinburgh and the Lothians and get the focus back onto the issues most important to you and your community.

The Scottish Conservatives are best placed to stop the SNP. That’s why in every council ward across Scotland, by voting for the Scottish Conservative candidate with your number one vote, you can make sure we win in every ward and best the SNP.

Miles Briggs is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian