Craigentinny/Duddingston - November by election
The by election in Ward 14 was caused by former SNP councillor, Ian Campbell resigning earlier this year due to ill health.
It will be held on 12 November when people living in the Ward who are over 16 and registered to vote in the ward can cast their ballot. It will be possible to vote in person and the polling stations all be open from 7am to 10pm.
The polling stations are situated at Meadowbank Church of Scotland, Willowbrae Parish Church, Northfield/Willowbrae Community Centre, Duddingston Kirk Halls, Restalrig Lochend Community Hub and Norton Park Conference Centre.
If, after 5pm on Wednesday 4 November, you are unable to
Ethan who works for Inclusion Scotland said: "Fundamentally, I want to be a voice for the people in our community. We’ve not had an SNP councillor since our last
Ben works for a housing charity. He said: “I think it’s more important than ever, that we get Green voices elected to the City
As an early years childcare professional that is clearly where her interests lie, and she explained to The Edinburgh Reporter that she is a problem solver who works vote in person because you are following Scottish Government advice or the advice of a registered medical practitioner in relation to coronavirus you can apply to vote by proxy. Completed applications must reach the Electoral Registration Officer by 5pm on Thursday 12 November. To find out more call the Electoral Registration Office on 0131 344 2500
There will be safety measures in place when you go to vote:
There will be physical distancing and may be a limit on how many people are allowed inside the polling place.
When you go inside the polling place, you will be expected to wear a face covering like you do when
councillor had to step down due to ill health. I very much want to be able to take people’s issues into the council and address them as their councillor but also, I want to be able to tell people about what’s going on in Council, why tough decisions are being made, to ensure that they know that I’m getting the issues across.
"I think there has been a lot of great work during this time. I would quite like to harness that – not that I believe people should
Chambers. I think Greens have got a really strong track record in Edinburgh standing up for issues to do with the climate, standing up for issues to do with poverty and making sure that we support all of the people that live in Edinburgh.
" You know, we’ve already shown ourselves to be a real credible alternative to the status quo. The council has been run by the SNP and Labour since 2012.
"In that time, we’ve seen our Green councillors make a huge
well with people,
Margaret began by telling us about herself. She said: “I have lived in Edinburgh all my life. I’m the Scottish Labour candidate, and I’m a very active member of the local Labour Party, I chair the Edinburgh campaign forum, and I’m active in my local constituency branch, Edinburgh Southern. My professional background is that I’m a childcare manager – I manage a childcare project in the south side of Edinburgh which is a parent led organisation that provides out of school care for children from several primary
The party ‘stands with the people of Scotland in favour of individual liberty, a free and sound economy, foreign neutrality and political independence’. Mr Laird is a former member of the SNP but left when he felt the party strayed from its main message.
He has a single aim in standing for election as he told us. He said: " My single issue that I’ll be campaigning on is simply end all you go into shops or on public transport. You should sanitise your hands when you go into the polling place and when you leave. Hand sanitiser will be made available on entry and exit.
The polling place staff will be behind protective screens, like staff in shops and pubs, but you may ask them for help if you need it. Polling place staff will be cleaning regularly, so you might need to wait for a booth to be cleaned before you can use it.
You may take your own pencil or pen with you if you’d like to. Fresh clean pencils will be available for each voter.Where possible polling places will have a one-way system so be prepared to followed the signage and any instructions.
be relying on food banks or relying on help in that way all the time – but what we’ve seen is what can happen when people have more time to focus on their neighbours and their community.
"People do rally round and people do want community, they want to support each other. They want to make sure that people aren’t alone and isolated, and needing medicines or food. And I think that’s really key we need to harness that."
amount of difference on all kinds of issues sort of pushing them to be stronger and bolder.
"And you’re exactly right, that we’ve already elected a Green councillor in Craigentinny/ Duddingston. So we know that there’s enough Green votes in the ward to win this. So if people like what Green councillors have been doing already, then they absolutely can put their confidence in the Green Party this election too, and hopefully, increase our representation again."
schools, after school and during holidays." A central issue is the new early years centre being built at Craigentinny Primary School. Building has stopped recently and Margaret has found out why.
She explained: “I found out that the builder has gone out of business, unfortunately. So
I’m trying to find out what the council’s plans are to move that forward so that it can be completed. As a childcare manager in early years it’s an area that I know a lot about and it would be useful to have the centre finished.”
lockdown restrictions now, not next week, not tomorrow, no, no, no, it’s gotta go. We’re done with this. This has been going on for half a year, and it’s not getting better, it seems to be getting worse.
"I understand I would have limited, or even maybe no power at council level, to do anything about that but I think it would send a signal if people voted on that
This is a four member ward and there are already three councillors representing it.
They are Cllrs John McLellan (Conservative), Alex Staniforth (Scottish Greens) and Joan Griffiths (Scottish Labour). Cllr Griffiths is the longest serving of the three, and is both the Vice-Convener of Finance and Resources and the Depute Lord Provost.
At the last election in 2017 there were 22,793 voters registered in the Ward, with only 10,892 votes cast. The SNP and Conservatives both got just over 23% of the vote each, but this is a Single Transferable Voting system not 'first past the post' like the General Election. In addition the SNP secured the largest share of First
Born in Edinburgh, she moved to London for a spell but continues to work in asset management here.
“On the local side I think a lot of people are pretty fed up with the traffic situation, the roadworks the focus very much on the tram, which has taken a lot of cash away from Lothian region transport.
"I know that there’s been a lot of upset with the suspension of the
Elaine works in a city school in pastoral care. She said: "The top issue that’s coming back is the withdrawal of the 69 bus service. That is the thing that has really been top of the list of concerns that people have. It runs right round Willowbrae down to Duddingston Village across to Northfield goes way up Parsons Green. And it was a little bus
issue. It would send a signal to the people in charge that people are getting sick and tired of this.
"People talk to me about the science. The science suggests very much the opposite to what the government advisers are
Preference votes in 2017 with 36.86% to the 36.19% attracted by Scottish Labour.
This by election is important due to the numbers in each party elected to the council. At present there are 62 elected members (until the 63rd is elected this month). Of these, the parties are split in this way:
Scottish Conservatives - 17
SNP - 15
Scottish Labour Party - 11 Scottish Green Party - 8
Liberal Democrats - 6
Edinburgh Party of Independent Councillors - 3
Independent - 2
Listen to our interviews with candidates on anchor.fm
number 69 bus. A lot of the elderly people in the ward really rely on that to get transport down up and down the hill, etc.
"That is certainly something I would look to try and pressure the council to do so because I think it’s a very needed service in this area. And it is very much the sort of local things, states of pavements states of roads that I will concentrate on.
“I think there’s a quite a lot of dissatisfaction in Edinburgh with the council, and the way it’s run and the very sort of hard left stance, it takes on certain things.
"And I think a lot of people feel that they’re not being listened to on certain items.
"I know that there’s been a lot of traffic changes over the summer, and our councillors have been absolutely inundated with complaints by people saying, well, we haven’t been consulted."
service that the elderly people in the ward, and those less able really depended on to get down the hill, to their lunch club, and across perhaps to the shops at Northfield.
“And the council withdrew the service claiming that it wasn’t well patronised. So they cut the service just as we locked down.
"The local community had tried to persuade the council to stop the cuts, but they felt they weren’t listened to. And this is the one thing that has come up again and again, they felt they weren’t listened to and they weren’t consulted.
"The state of the roads is another thing – potholes, pavements, traffic in Marionville, that’s another thing that hasn’t gone away.
Before lockdown, I managed to get some police checks there."
telling them. All the evidence out of Sweden seems to be they're doing it the right way. The Scottish and UK Governments sent people out of hospitals, and into care homes where they died. Those were the vulnerable."