Polls open to elect councillor for Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay

The people of Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay will take to the polls today to elect a new councillor.

Eight candidates are in the running to become one of four elected representatives for the area on Fife Council.

The vacancy follows the resignation of former Labour councillor Lesley Laird, who was elected to the UK Parliament last year and is now Shadow Scottish Secretary.

The frontrunners for the post appear to be SNP candidate Neale Hanvey, Conservative Dave Coleman and Labour’s Billy Pollock.

Other candidates are Callum Hawthorne from the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Mags Hall from the Scottish Green Party, Calum Paul from the Scottish Libertarian Party and independents Peter Collins and Alastair Macintyre.

Mr Hanvey and Mr Pollock are both former councillors, who were not re-elected in 2017.

They are each seeking to resume their places on the council, which is led by the SNP and Labour under a power-sharing agreement.

The winning candidate will join David Barratt (SNP), Alice McGarry (SNP) and Dave Dempsey (Conservative) as representatives for the ward.

The SNP is the largest political group with 29 councillors. Labour has 22 following the suspension of Mary Lockhart from the party, the Conservatives have 15 and the Liberal Democrats nine.

Ms Lockhart currently sits as an independent member.

Polls will be open from 7am till 10pm.

The number of people registered to vote is 14,484 and 2,979 postal votes have already been cast. Turnout in the last election was 54.3%.