Candidates hoping to win election

NOMINATIONS for election to Argyll and Bute Council have been announced – seeing a total of 18 candidates in Oban wards for eight council seats.

Argyll and Bute Council has 36 councillors who serve in 11 different wards across the area. Not returning to the ballot paper is council leader Dick Walsh, bringing to an end the Dunoonbased ex-milkman’s decades- old dominance in the local authority.

On the ballot paper is war veteran Donnie MacMillan, who, if elected, will be the oldest councillor in Scotland.

In Oban North and Lorn and Oban South and Isles there are four councillors in each ward, with eight candidates standing in the Oban South and the Isles ward, and 10 standing in Oban North and Lorn. Voting takes place on May 4 but not in South Kintyre as the number of candidates matches the vacancies.

Oban South and the Isles: Jake Ainscough (Scottish Labour Party), Mary-Jean Devon (Independent), Jim Lynch (Scottish National Party), Alister MacDougall (Independent), Sean MacIntyre (Scottish National Party), Roddy McCuish (Independent), Jamie McGrigor (Scottish Conservative and Unionist), David Pollard (Scottish Liberal Democrats).

Oban North and Lorn: Brian Burnett (Independent), Kieron Green (Independent), Neil MacKay (Independent), Julie MacKenzie (Scottish National Party), Allan McKie (Independent), William Mohieddeen (Scottish Greens), Grant Nicholson (Independent), Elaine Robertson (Independent), Breege Smyth (Scottish National Party), Andrew Vennard (Scottish Conservative and Unionist). NEWSPAPERS SUPPORT RECYCLING Recycled paper made up 75.5% of the raw material for UK newspapers in 2004