Persistence pays off for Neil in council ward election rerun - Susan Dalgety

Tory MSP Sue Webber canvassing for the successful Conservative candidate Neil Cuthbert

Tory Neil Cuthbert topped the poll with a third of the vote, at his third attempt at winning a seat as one of the ward’s three councillors.

He is universally liked, even by his political opponents, and he knows his way round the public realm, having had a varied career as a civil servant, in the food and drink industry and promoting Scotland’s colleges.

He will prove an asset to the Tory group, now ten-strong, as well as the council.

Labour’s fresh-faced candidate, Conor Savage came second, but only just. He picked up 1146 votes, with Liberal Democrat Peter Nicolson biting at his heels with 1009, a surprising result given that a Lib Dem scandal was one of the reasons for the by-election in the first place.

Back in November, self-styled “real local champion” Louise Spence resigned her seat only days after winning a by-election that saw her elected as the Lib Dem councillor to replace the city’s former transport chief Scott Arthur, who is now the Labour MP for Edinburgh South West.

Spence had stood for election knowing that she was about to head off to sunnier climes with her family, an astonishingly brazen thing to do, but there you go.

Then in a surprise move, the ward’s third councillor, SNP big-wig Marco Biagi, announced he was standing down to become a special adviser for First Minister John Swinney. So suddenly two out of the three council seats were vacant.

The SNP only managed to poll 840 votes, compared to 1969 in 2022, though they will argue the turnout last week was much lower.

Labour’s new kid on the block brings the ruling party’s numbers up to 11, which will come as some relief to new leader Jane Meagher, who has her work cut out running a minority administration.

Councillor Savage is clearly a young man in a hurry, with big political ambitions. In 2017, when a student at Bangor University, he stood in a council by-election for the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru.

Last year he told the people of Orkney and Shetland he was honoured to be their Labour candidate in the 2024 general election. The islanders did not return the compliment. He was beaten into fifth place by Reform UK.

During the by-election, Cllr Savage said his number one priority was rebuilding trust in local politics. A laudable aim, which I am sure all his council colleagues share – particularly the Lib Dems, who are still smarting from the behaviour of their erstwhile collage, ex-Cllr Spence.

As someone who became a councillor relatively young – I was 35 when I was elected to the old Edinburgh District Council – I have a word or two of advice for Cllr Savage.

Immerse yourself in your ward. Spend the majority of your time there, listening to the concerns of local people, be their champion in the City Chambers. And don’t see your new role as a stepping stone to a more ‘glamorous’ position as an MSP.

Being an effective councillor is the best political job you can win.