Neil Cuthbert becomes the party’s newest councillor after securing 32.6 per cent of the first preference votes cast The Scottish Conservatives’ gain came as a result of their vote share surging by 12.9 per cent on last year’s by-election in the ward Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay hailed the victory He said it was proof that his party are the “common sense alternative to the failed left-wing consensus” offered by the other parties  Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “This is a superb by-election victory for the Scottish Conservatives and my congratulations go to Neil Cuthbert “I campaigned with Neil in the ward and I know he will be a strong voice for residents in Colinton and Fairmilehead as well as a great addition to the City of Edinburgh Council the Scottish Conservatives offer a common-sense alternative to the failed left-wing consensus of the SNP “Ordinary Scots feel disconnected from Holyrood because of its relentless focus on fringe issues while essential public services continue to get worse despite their taxes going up “We’re the only party challenging that failed group-think and focusing on the day-to-day issues that really matter to people.” By clicking subscribe I agree to the Scottish Conservatives using the information I provide to keep me updated via email about the Party’s campaigns and opportunities to get involved. Read our full privacy policy Promoted by J Tweedie on behalf of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party The ad-free version is ready for purchase on iOS mobile app today we couldn't find that page";var n=e.querySelector("h2");return n&&n.remove(),{staticContent:e,title:t}},d=function(e){var t=document.createElement("button");return t.innerText=e,t.classList.add("error-page-button"),t},f=function(e){var t=document.createElement("div");t.id="recirculation-404",t.classList.add("brand-hint-bg");var n="\n \n \n Tick here if you would like us to send you the author’s response This leafy suburb in the south-west of Edinburgh is also known as Baile Cholgain in Scottish Gaelic It's a dedicated conservation area with a real "small village" feel and is bordered by Dreghorn and Craiglockhart Colinton is a relatively residential part of Edinburgh with lots of private housing based in Bonaly Local children enjoy playing in Colinton Mains Park Notable businesses and bars in Colinton include Colinton Arts, Olive Deli and Post, and Spylaw Tavern This is the second by-election in three months in the same ward and two councillors have now been chosen The electorate was 19,669 and the number of ballot papers received was 6,281 a percentage turnout of 31.9% These figures are all reduced since the last by-election held in November when the turnout was almost 38% There were 58 rejected ballot papers and the quota of votes – the number which a candidate required to be elected was 2,075 No single candidate achieved the quota on first preference votes alone The number of votes for each candidate is recorded below Cllr Neil Cuthbert said his first task tomorrow is to join the online meeting about the Tourist Tax which begins at 2pm Both councillors were about to be furnished with new laptops and technical equipment before going home He said: I would have loved to be elected in 2022 or last November but ultimately the decision is with the people I am really really pleased it has happened this time round We have been at this since the end of August so it has felt like we have been getting out and speaking to a lot of people Finally we have the reward for that.” At the last by-election on 14 November Louise Spence the Liberal Democrat candidate won with 2,683 first preference votes The Conservatives had 1,454 of the first preference votes The January 2025 by election was announced after two resignations – Marco Biagi the SNP councillor elected in May 2022 who has joined the government as a special adviser and the other Louise Spence the newly elected Liberal Democrat councillor who resigned after just six days Ms Spence had advised of her impending move to Dubai but the party suspended her as she would not have been able to fulfil her duties The November 2025 by-election was held to replace the former councillor Dr Scott Arthur who resigned on his election to Westminster to represent Edinburgh South West The number of votes cast by postal ballot was declared at 3,092 out of a possible 5,379 The Edinburgh Reporter brings you news all about Edinburgh which pursues private equity buyouts in Australia’s lower middle market expects to reach an AUD 150m (USD 102m) second close on its second fund by the end of this year The Sydney-based investor targets relatively concentrated fund portfolios and its closes are generally timed to coincide with when capital is required for new deals A first close of approximately AUD 50m happened in May 2023 enabling Colinton to complete the acquisition of medicine delivery service Midas Healthcare The Fund II second close – which is likely to happen around November – comes as the firm is working on two deals and the other is a change of control situation He hopes to deploy AUD 250m-AUD 350m across the entire Fund II cycle Fund I had a corpus of just under AUD 100m but co-investment took overall deployment to about AUD 230m Colinton focuses on control situations, typically writing equity cheques of AUD 20m to AUD 50m for companies with enterprise values of AUD 50m to AUD 150m, Moore said separately in a fireside chat with this news service “We intentionally chose this space as the big end of town is crowded and the mid-market of AUD 200m-AUD 750m has smaller domestic firms reaching up and global and pan-regional firms reaching down,” Moore explained in a follow-up exchange noting that the space Colinton is playing in doesn’t feature many competitors “For transactions of similar size in the US financial advisors may receive 30-40 NBIOs [non-binding indicative offers] whilst here [in Australia] we typically are involved in situations where there are two or three other firms around the opportunity.” Colinton is sector agonistic but sees a lot of potential in industrial services Businesses in this sector will be “highly prospective supporting the Australian economy’s light industrial nature agriculture and education industries,” Moore said the team saw many compelling opportunities in the public market where it could work with existing boards on operational improvement initiatives the firm sees a lot of value in the private market “We are not pushing as hard to look at public market opportunities for Fund II,” Moore noted Colinton recently agreed to invest in Dimeo Cleaning Services alongside global mid-market private equity firm Livingbridge which acquired a controlling stake in the business in late 2018 Dimeo is estimated to be worth AUD 400m and the sale process was managed by Miles Advisory Moore told Mergermarket that Dimeo’s EBITDA has risen from just under AUD 20m to just under AUD 50m during the Fund I hold period That fund will see an approximately 4.5x return on the Dimeo investment It was a robust sale process with two other private equity firms – one pan-regional manager and one global manager – making it to the final round which is usually a characteristic of much larger transactions It demonstrates that large-cap investors are willing to come down to size for businesses with strong historical growth and a strong outlook “They are finding public-to-private transactions much more difficult to execute the AUD 40m-AUD 50m EBITDA space is being very robustly contested by the domestic mid-market firms and international ones,” Moore observed The Fund I investor base primarily comprises family offices and high-net-worth individuals There is also a significant GP contribution QIC and Washington H Soul Pattinson [ASX:SOL] have participated alongside the fund as co-investors The vehicle is fully deployed and in its realisation phase with distributions to paid-in (DPI) of around 0.8x so far The Dimeo exit follows the sale of a 17% position in IntelliHR a listed human resources technology business Accel-KKR-backed Humanforce took the company private last year following a bidding war with The Access Group When holding a stake of that size in a public company Colinton is effectively able to run an auction process if approached by parties interested in a public-to-private transaction There are two more listed companies in the portfolio: thermal management materials provider Alexium [ASX:AJX] and collision repair and auto parts specialist AMA Group [ASX:AMA] It claims to have around AUD 240m in funds under management deployed across nine active portfolio companies Moore was a managing director and global partner at Carlyle Group [NASDAQ:CG] where he was responsible for establishing the Australia office Explore unlimited content like this, available only in the platform.Already a client? 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For more information, please review our Privacy Policy Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information (Opt-Out) Edinburgh Labour have selected Conor Savage to stand in place of their last candidate trailing in third place behind the winning LibDem and the Conservative candidate Mr Savage previously stood as a Plaid Cymru candidate in Bangor in 2017 when he was in last place among six candidates at the recent general election he was the Labour candidate for Orkney and Shetland – although he lives in Edinburgh He won 1,493 votes but the seat was retained by Alastair Carmichael for the Liberal Democrats His social media account still shows that he is a Labour candidate for Orkney and Shetland He is described as a sustainable finance expert and marine scientist and when he stood in the summer he confirmed to our colleagues on Shetland News that he would be happy to relocate north We have contacted Mr Savage requesting an interview Edinburgh Liberal Democrats have chosen Peter Nicholson for whom we have little information as yet although we have emailed the group leader Cllr Kevin Lang asking for a bio and a photo who is the sole councillor for the ward at present commented on the Labour selection He said:”It does concern me if Labour have selected a candidate willing to stand for any party Local voters have already been badly let down by the Liberal Democrats with their scandalous Dubai debacle and this further costly by-election They do not want Labour with their infighting taking them for granted either.” The three resignations were: firstly Councillor Scott Arthur who was elected to Westminster in July secondly the newly elected LibDem councillor Louise Spence who resigned after just six days saying that she was moving to Dubai and thirdly Councillor Marco Biagi who represented the SNP in the ward and who is taking up a position as a special adviser to the first minister the votes were counted electronically on Friday morning at Waverley Court and to much applause from the many Liberal Democrats who were at the by-election count Louise Spence was declared as the new councillor for Colinton/Fairmilehead This is the first time that the LibDems have won a seat in this ward The Liberal Democrats won 2,683 first preference votes with Conservatives in second place with 1,454 votes and Labour in third place with 1,441 votes This election was held to replace the Labour councillor Scott Arthur who is now an MP and it must be considered a disappointment for the party which is in administration Louise Spence said that she believed she had won as she is the local candidate From the people I spoke to on the doors the things that they are concerned about are their schools and their roads and the greenbelt So I am going to start with that and I will keep on knocking on doors and finding out what the constituents are looking for “I live in the word but this win was down to a lot of hard work and speaking to people We fought hard and people understand that if we work this hard in a campaign then that is how hard we will work when elected.” said that his group will be looking at the arithmetic of the council when they meet next week The minority administration now has just 11 councillors Greens 10 Conservatives 9 and there is one independent councillor He said: “This is a spectacular result for the Liberal Democrats and historic because we have never won in this ward before I’m delighted for Louise Spence who is someone who’s rooted in her community and will be a fantastic local councillor for the people of Colinton/Fairmilehead ward “This does have an impact on the arithmetic of Edinburgh Council which is already a very balanced and split council We as a group will meet next week to consider what this by-election means as we go forward and we will have more to say on that after we have met as a group.” Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats said that Louise will introduce him at tomorrow’s Scottish Liberal Democrat conference He said: “I am so happy for Louise Spence In 2022 the LibDems took a big leap forward but there was some hard working activists who didn’t quite make it and Louise was one of them and to see her returned as councillor for Colinton/Fairmilehead with such a stonking majority just speaks to the LibDem revival that is happening across the country “Obviously the arithmetic changes but this is a decision for my councillors I am sure they will think long and hard and soberly about what that arithmetic means to the administration but today is about celebration Louise joins other LibDems elected recently and that huge leap forward we took at the General Election and there’s more of that to come.” said: “This is a seat Labour won in 2022 and 2024 The result is a devastating rejection of Labour’s performance at the council and after just a few months in Downing Street Voters are rightly angry about Labour councillors trying to cut support for disabled kids and at Westminster cruel decisions like the two child cap and the removal of the winter fuel allowance “Edinburgh deserves better than Cammy Day clinging on trying to run the council with 11 councillors out of 63 7,746 votes were cast which is a turnout of 37.4% Total Number of Ballot Papers Received:  7,446 Total Number of Ballot Papers Rejected: 45 said: “I also want to thank our elections team and council staff who have worked very hard over recent months to make sure this by-election ran so smoothly “Thanks to everyone who took part in the by-election to elect a new councillor to represent their views on matters affecting the ward and the wider city I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Louise as a new councillor and I look forward to working with her.” The one remaining councillor in the ward where there have been three resignations in the last six months has written to the leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council asking if his group will pay even a contribution towards the expenses The costs include printing and posting a poll card to every voter in a ward with 19,000 voters the cost of printing and posting postal votes for around 4,500 postal voters payment for venue hire for all polling places and the costs of staging the electronic count The by-election resulted in a resounding win for the Liberal Democrat candidate The reason stated was a change in her “personal circumstances” Ms Spence’s home in Colinton is on the market for sale and it is understood she will be moving to Dubai with her family It is also understood that when she requested of her party that she could work remotely they suspended her – and then she resigned We have been advised that Ms Spence has not claimed any salary or expenses for the six days she served as a councillor In addition however the Conservative group say that the same property was advertised for let at £3,000 per month for a period between the local government elections in 2022 and the recent by-election putting the candidate’s claim as the local candidate who lived in the ward in some doubt Cllr Rust has also asked about whether the Liberal Democrats will improve their vetting processes in future and whether it is appropriate for the Liberal Democrat group to publish the home addresses of councillors and candidates in view of the threats and attacks on politicians He has also questioned Cllr Lang as to his own representation of his constituents since Cllr Lang does not live in the ward he represents The recent by-election leaflets were peppered with references to the local candidate being the best option At the end of last week Council group leader Kevin Lang said: “As a council group We all worked hard on Louise’s campaign and did so in good faith “Louise’s news was shared with the group for the first time on Thursday and once her changed circumstances were clear we were in agreement that she had to resign immediately “We make no apology for setting ourselves high standards as Liberal Democrat councillors All of us work hard for our local communities and serve our constituents to the best of our ability.” We are told that Scottish Liberal Democrat leader supports his statement and has confirmed he was only aware of the circumstances a week after the by-election – the same day as the LibDem group on the council The first position was vacated by Dr Scott Arthur in autumn last year after he was elected to Westminster and the second came about after Marco Biagi the former SNP Minister resigned from the council to take a job at Holyrood as a special adviser Dr Clyde has been an academic with the Open University teaching history She is married and lives in south  Edinburgh where she has been a community councillor for many years She stood for the party in the neighbouring Morningside ward in the 2022 council election Dr Clyde has been active in helping to save several local heritage sites sometimes working with developers to modify designs so that they improve better outcomes for residents like safer routes to school or access to green spaces She believes strongly in collaborative working to achieve the wellbeing economy She is concerned about the antiquated way of collecting rubbish the condition of the roads and young people’s mental health She considers that the tourist tax should be spent partly on housing for local people If elected then she will have to vote with the SNP group which was disappointed not to persuade councillors last week to use their way of increasing funding for even more new council homes The by-election will be held on 23 January and the candidates are listed here. The incident involving a cyclist and the driver of a black BMW happened on Colinton Road at the junction with Tipperlinn Road The BMW left the scene prior to officers attending and headed south along Tipperlinn Road and enquiries are ongoing to trace it The 55-year-old male cyclist was taken to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for treatment Constable Neill Sage said: “Our enquiries into this incident are ongoing and I am appealing for anyone who witnessed the crash and who have not already spoken to officers to get in touch “I would also appeal to anyone who was in that area around the time and who may have dash-cam of private CCTV footage which would assist us to contact us.” Anyone with any information is asked to contact 101 quoting reference 1644 of 15 March John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme The by-election has been called as a result of former Labour councillor Scott Arthur being elected to the UK Parliament A couple of dogs were out with their owners at Fairmilehead Parish Church Hall – Skye and Edi The result is expected by 11.30am on Friday The NEN – North Edinburgh News The community media resource for north Edinburgh Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email The Colinton/Fairmilehead by-election result has been announced at Waverley Court in Edinburgh Neil Cuthbert of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party and Conor Savage of the Scottish Labour Party have been duly elected to serve in the City of Edinburgh Council as members for the Colinton/Fairmilehead Ward The declaration was made in the early hours of this morning (Friday 24 January) by Returning Officer for Edinburgh Returning Officer for Edinburgh Paul Lawrence said: “Thanks to everyone who took part in the by-election to elect two new councillors to represent their communities on matters affecting their ward and the wider city I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Neil and Conor as new councillors and look forward to working with them “I would also like to thank our elections team and council colleagues who have worked so hard on this by-election in recent months – not least given the extremely challenging circumstances of rescheduling the count at such short notice due to Storm Eowyn.” For further details of the results, please visit the Elections section of the Council website. In 2010 we reported that she had just won the Edinburgh East seat for the first time with a majority of 9,181 votes This majority was larger than that won by Alastair Darling in Edinburgh South West And at that time four of the five Edinburgh MPs were Labour politicians with one Liberal Democrat in Edinburgh West there has been a return to this position after the 2024 General Election Sheila is a seasoned campaigner and has helped many Labour politicians both win and keep their seats at local and national elections including Chris Murray who now holds her old Westminster seat She said it is sometimes hard not to try and do both jobs – as election agent and candidate – but she has Stephen Jenkinson as her campaign manager who was successful running the numbers for Scott Arthur to keep her right Ms Gilmore has been criticised even for standing, as she was part of the group of retiring councillors in 2007 who were given a golden handshake of £16,000. The terms of the payment at that point were that she was not allowed to stand as a council candidate ever again but the terms were changed before the 2022 Local Government election She said: “In 2007 I was given the payment partly in recognition that councils then had no pension cover I’m not even sure that originally it was intended to be permanent but nobody had really thought that through.” More recently she has worked with Citizens Advice Bureau using her legal qualifications to help advise people on all sorts of problems including benefits She said: “People are struggling with things like rents at the moment.I also do a lot of social security type of appeals when people have been refused benefits and it proceeds to a tribunal I probably spend around 20 hours a week on this kind of voluntary work.” She explained that the main reason for standing in the by-election is to help people She said: “I genuinely think local government and what you can do for people locally I think I’ve got the experience and the capacity to do it and to keep doing it Local government is actually the thing that people are most affected by.” At council level she is adamant that the councillors “must take people with them” She said: “When I was a councillor last time Had a particularly tricky housing issue about prefabs The engineers report suggested that it was not sensible to put these on the market because of the construction material “So I took a step back and asked the officers to look at it in a slightly different way It took longer but we had a very good firm of architects who were really skilled in doing that kind of community consultation It was very emotional because people felt strongly about this particular type of house but in the end we got single storey houses which was people were coming out of They had feared that the prefabs would be demolished and they would be moved into big flats.” As Housing Convener Sheila was also quite involved in housing in Oxgangs She explained the council were looking at demolishing three blocks of high flats which had always been problematic After a lot of expert advice she said it appeared the flats had damp from day one She explained that at a meeting with tenants complaining about the damp (coincidentally mother of Chris Murray MP) immediately agreed to give the necessary funding What had happed was that tenants brought their damp sheets and slung them on the table in front of the Minister demanding better housing Sheila also worked with the Secretary of State Ian Murray MP whose constituency covers part of the Colinton/Fairmilehead ward And she lived in Colinton Mains for a while when she was young But she is adamant that it is knocking on doors which actually recruits people to the cause So that is what she is doing all the way up to the election often with other Labour politicians and activists accompanying her That sometimes includes Scott Arthur who Sheila says “definitely did the work” And it is that work that she hopes to continue Sheila said: One of the biggest complaints is about how we catch up with the state of roads and pavements It is about making sure that all the basic services are properly looked after because that’s what you see every day “And I think that after many years of local it’s been difficult to keep up with all of that But I think there’s been a bit more investment this year into roads I’m keen to see that extend to pavements as well the state of the pavements is actually dangerous it’d be nice to have it looking nice which is all sorts of other consequences for people’s lives.” As well as this she is a champion of getting out to speak to people rather than relying on digital communication all of the time She knows that this can be difficult for those without a computer She said: “I think that it is really important And sometimes you actually got to go out to people And there’s a lot of talk recently about how people can access certain benefits I very much in favor of actually getting out into things like supermarket car parks and making yourself available where people actually are members of The Colinton Local History Society got together to develop a new guide to Colinton’s place names which answers these questions and many others What’s in a Name: The Story of Colinton’s Place Names covers around 150 street and place names and natural features within Colinton Did you know that The Gallolee was named after a field in the Dreghorn estate that Thorburn Road was built to provide access to cottages built by the Aged Christian Friends Society and named after the mother of R A Macfie of Dreghorn or that The Shoot was a short cut to Colinton Station What’s in a Name: The Story of Colinton’s Place Names lets you see the history of Colinton through its place names in an engaging and informative way   The book also contains a section describing the historical development of Colinton includes references to notable residents and buildings It is illustrated with historical photographs from the Society’s archives and maps have been specially created for each area to show the location of the places mentioned What’s in a Name: The Story of Colinton’s Place Names is now available from the Society the Swing Café and other local retailers and on Amazon at a cost of only £6.99 Or better still, come along to one of our meetings in Dreghorn Loan Hall, take out a membership and qualify for a special Member’s discount. Contact info@colintonhistory.org.uk for more information or visit our website www.colintonhistory.org.uk  All profits from sales of the book go to support the activities of the Colinton Local History Society Sheila Gilmore is a former councillor who served in Edinburgh for the Moredun Ward from 1991 to 2007. She will take up the challenge to retain the seat for Labour in the by election on 14 November 2024 Ms Gilmore was MP for Edinburgh East from 2010 to 2015 only unseated in the SNP wave in that General Election by Tommy Sheppard Born in Aberdeen she later moved to Edinburgh first in History and Politics and secondly in Law She worked for the Scottish Consumer Council and also a private practice specialising in family law Labour Group leader Cllr Cammy Day said: “Sheila comes with a wealth of knowledge in the city as a local community activist former councillor and member of parliament in east Edinburgh “Her strong commitment to serving local communities was proven in all of her local and political work over many years Edinburgh Labour are excited to select Sheila and the Labour movement will be out in force supporting her in the by election to replace Cllr Scott Arthur who formally resigns on 16 September “Councillor Arthur has been a great local councillor and will now serve as the member of parliament for Edinburgh South West and will be hugely missed in the Labour group and the council.” Ms Spence’s Colinton family home is currently being marketed for offers over £730,000 by a firm of city estate agents in Stockbridge That firm had already prepared sales particulars ahead of the property being put on the market just after the by-election was held Ms Spence is understood to have intimated the “sudden change in circumstances” to the Liberal Democrat group at a meeting on Thursday evening She was first of all suspended from the group and subsequently resigned from her new position The Liberal Democrats are now back to 13 elected members in Edinburgh Whether or not they want to run the council is a question being posed at the City Chambers – the Labour minority administration is run with a smaller political group of just 11 councillors Anas Sarwar prevented any local authorities from entering formal coalition agreements before the 2022 local government election The Edinburgh Reporter understands that Ms Spence and her family are now moving to the Middle East having promoted herself as the local candidate who lived in the council ward at every opportunity during the campaign Ms Spence has been approached for comment Ms Spence told The Edinburgh Evening News: “I have had a sudden change in personal circumstances which meant I couldn’t in all conscience fulfil my role as a councillor I have informed my Liberal Democrat colleagues of my changed circumstances and offered my resignation.” We understand that she made an approach to her new colleagues to see if she could do some of the work as a councillor remotely but having been promoted by the party as the local candidate it is difficult to see that would been acceptable to them or the voters Cllr Kevin Lang the Liberal Democrat group leader said: “As a council group we are felling a bit of hurt right now We all worked hard on Louise’s campaign and did so in good faith Louise’s news was shared with the group for the first time on Thursday and once her changed circumstances were clear we were in agreement that she had to resign immediately.” Following the resignation of the SNP’s Marco Biagi earlier this week the only remaining Colinton/Fairmilehead councillor ahead of the January by elections is Conservative councillor who has represented the area for two decades Cllr Rust told The Edinburgh Reporter: “”Over the past twenty years I have seen ward colleagues come and go not least as taxpayers footing the bill. However councillor all the best for her life abroad.” Senior Labour Councillor and campaign manager for Labour in the recent by-election said: “This is the most outrageous thing I’ve ever heard of in local politics As the dust begins to settle things don’t look any better for the Libdems I think as a party they have serious questions to answer “No one decides to sell their house and move abroad on a whim This must have been known about for months “The Libdems have taken the residents of Colinton/Fairmilehead for fools and No one will trust anything they say around here ever again we are well served by two excellent Labour MPs and when we go back to the polls in January we can elect a hard working Labour Councillor who will be committed to Colinton/Fairmilehead and who will work tirelessly to represent them in the City Chambers.” Scottish Conservative MSP Sue Webber said: “This is scandalous behaviour from the Lib Dems that shows how little regard they have for taxpayers’ money “This candidate ought to be ashamed but there are also serious questions for Alex Cole-Hamilton and his whole party to answer.  “Surely they must have known this was a risk Do they really think this is acceptable for a so-called ‘local champion’ “Alex Cole-Hamilton should apologise on his party’s behalf for letting down Edinburgh constituents and wasting taxpayers’ money “Local people who want a representative fully focused on the day job should consider voting Scottish Conservative in the upcoming by-election and we’ll deliver some common sense The second by-election has been called for 23 January in the Colinton/Fairmilehead ward – now there are two councillor positions to fill. Read more here. There are two councillor vacancies to fill and 19,669 people who have the opportunity of voting for the candidate they want to serve them until the next council elections in 2027 Paul Lawrence said: “With the by-election fast approaching I encourage residents of the Colinton/Fairmilehead ward to visit their local polling place on Thursday Please remember your polling cards and take this opportunity to have your say Your two new local councillors will represent your community on issues affecting the ward and Edinburgh as a whole “Our elections pages provide useful information on how the Single Transferable Vote system works – you can rank candidates in order of preference “If you’ve requested and received a postal ballot please return it as soon as possible to make sure your vote is counted.” Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on 23 January at: Cuthbert’s Episcopal Church HallOxgangs Neighbourhood CentrePentland Community CentreThe electronic election count will take place on Friday 24 January starting at 10.00am The two successful candidates will then attend the full council meeting at 2pm on Friday afternoon to vote on introducing the Visitor Levy in Edinburgh The candidates are all listed here. With just two days to go until the Colinton/Fairmilehead by-election the city council’s elections team has been urging residents in the area to cast their votes on Thursday 14 November Oxgangs and Swanston who are aged 16 or over and have registered to vote can participate in Thursday’s by-election Together they will select a new councillor for the ward Paul Lawrence said: “As the by-election approaches I encourage residents of the Colinton/Fairmilehead ward to visit their local polling place and have their say in electing a councillor to represent the community on issues affecting the ward and the wider city “Our elections pages provide helpful information on how the Single Transferable Vote system works – you can rank candidates in order of preference “If you’ve requested and received a postal ballot be sure to return it as soon as possible to make sure your vote is counted.” Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on 14 November: Anyone living in the area who is aged 16 or over and has registered can vote in the by-election and votes can be cast by post or by proxy if more convenient The electronic election count will take place on Friday 15 November starting at 9:30am Find out more about the Colinton/Fairmilehead by-election He explained that he does know the area quite well having lived in Hailes Gardens as a teenager while going to school in Corstorphine He said: “All parts of the city have got some of the same issues People have problems with bucket collections And I would mention the new bus tracking system that they’ve installed It’s breaking down all over the city – they’ve got signs over them saying “out of service”.” We pointed out to Mr Henry that the council has just announced that all existing trackers are now working and they’re about to extend it to other new locations Undeterred he continued: “My question is (and I’ve already sent it to the council) – how much electricity are these things burning Because these are colour and there are fans on them “The old ones had none of these issues so I want to know how much money they spent on it.” He said that as a councillor he will be questioning everything spent because he thinks the council wastes a lot of money.” which is right on the edge of this one here There’s thousands of empty houses that the council own while they put people that are homeless in temporary accommodation They can’t afford to upgrade these premises “So they’ve got all these empty properties where they’re not getting any council tax from they’re paying for 5,500 people in Edinburgh to stay in temporary accommodation I worked out how much that was – it’s millions and millions of pounds they’re wasting on keeping people in temporary accommodation while at the same time they claim they don’t have the money to upgrade these properties “And then there’s student accommodation the number of installs of student accommodation rather than actual social housing or affordable housing And while I think Edinburgh University is a fantastic institution – it’s taking over the whole city.” Regarding poverty he said that it is a “disgrace in this day and age that we’re not looking after the people that are most vulnerable I think because I’ve been in politics for a while I was always supportive of free school meals for all school children it means kids are going to get at least one decent meal and they don’t stand out as they’re getting free school meals while others aren’t we should ensure that all school children across Edinburgh He also set out an argument that one of the reasons Edinburgh Council is underfunded is because we have “lots of private schools” He said: Apparently this is part of the calculation in the Barnett formula you’re deemed to be a more wealthy area So that is one of the things apparently has quite an impact on how much money is given to Edinburgh versus other cities of similar sizes.” He also insisted that the council has wasted money on the tram He said : “I was in a party conference meeting once when they discussed what they were going to do with the tram in Edinburgh and I said well it only goes from the airport to the city centre Did you know it doesn’t even go to the airport until seven minutes past six in the morning so you can’t use it for the first 20 flights of the day Then it shuts down about 1130 or 12 o’clock at night so you can’t use it for any of the late flights I question the logic – the financial case – for building that extension “This seems to be the problem with our local council is once they decide they’re going to do something no matter what the evidence is that they should stop So the same issues come up over and over again “I’ve watched what they’ve done in Roseburn They spent a huge amount of money on this wonderful new road layout except it’s damaged the local businesses “So my issue on transport is there’s been no actual joined up thinking what we’ve had is little vanity projects which have not really been joined up “Then they decide they’re now going to add to it but what they never did is fix all the roads first I’ve watched cyclists going over them It’s damaging people’s vehicles I’ve met some cyclists when I was in the general election campaign that was out in South Queensferry fractured her skull and ended up in hospital She can’t remember what happened.” Asked to sum up why he is the best candidate I’ve got a connection to this ward for a start and I think the big thing that makes me stand out from all the political parties is that I don’t have a manifesto that I’m tied to I’m only interested in the community and the people that vote for me.” A list of all the candidates in the election is here. Mr Henry is one of two of the original complainers of alleged fund raising fraud and missing ring-fenced funds which sparked a police investigation investigating alleged financial irregularities within the SNP David said: “I am standing as an independent candidate and wrote a number of policies including “Men Must Support Equality” and “Empowering Parents and Protecting Children” while I was a member of the Alba Party “During the recent General Election I attracted the support from JK Rowling who is a constituent of Edinburgh West.“I went to both Gylemuir Primary and Craigmount Secondary schools Now at 58-years-old I am also a carer for my mum who lives in Fife She lost her husband at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic So I have plenty of experience of healthcare social care and everything else that can happen “I support women’s equality and will support a change to the Equality Act so that it clearly defines that the protected characteristic of “Sex” means biological sex and no other definition which can be found on my campaign Facebook page and on YouTube “I fully support that parents must be consulted and give their informed consent before schools and education authorities teach young children controversial subjects such as sex education “I had planned a Private Members Bill to change the law on energy regulation to prevent above inflation energy bill rises it would have prevented the 10% rise in energy bills this October Sadly that was not to be and the Labour Party has failed to act to stop above inflation energy price rises “As an independent councillor I will only be answerable to you as constituents and not subject to political party whips It is a much more honest form of democracy and I will be working to better the area and community “I will work constructively with other parties and politicians to help build Scotland’s future I fully support Scotland being a modern European independent democracy So I will support your right to have a democratic vote on Scotland’s independence.” He hopes to join the 10 Green Councillors in Edinburgh and is campaigning on a message of taking serious action for climate justice and attended primary school there for a year in the mid-90’s He moved back to South Edinburgh two years ago has a degree in environmental microbiology He currently works in healthcare logistics In his free time he enjoys photography and the outdoors.Daniel said: “In November residents of Colinton-Fairmilehead will have a chance to vote like their future depends on it by supporting me as the Scottish Green candidate in the upcoming by-election This is the first time I’m standing for election and I think I will be a good councillor because of my strong sense of social justice and wide range of interests from languages and culture to accessibility and mental health I’m really looking forward to meeting more people over the coming months to hear about their experiences of living in the area and how public services have been holding up under Council cuts “We’re at a critical point for action on climate change where we urgently need the talk of emissions targets over the last decades to turn into real progress towards net zero we are calling for a just transition that safeguards the rights and well-being of working people This has got to be a transformative process at every level of our society which is why local authorities and communities are so important in bringing about the changes that are needed.” Improving the routes for people to travel sustainably in the Colinton-Fairmilehead will be one of Daniel’s priorities for the campaign He said: “For a few years now I’ve been taking part in campaigns for better active-travel provision in the city I realise we need better on-road provisions to make it safer for children getting to school delivery riders who depend on cycling to make a living and for anybody that finds off-road paths intimidating as well Neighbouring wards have seen some progress on protecting bicycle lanes such as on Lanark Road where local groups have mobilised effectively to persuade the Council to retain them But in Colinton-Fairmilehead we are missing basic cycle lanes on the major roads and there are no bike storage hangers anywhere in the ward We need the Council to be much better at rolling out the cycle network which has been promised to ensure that residents further away from the city centre aren’t excluded “Cycling is just one part of developing a well-connected city as people should be able to access what they need daily by walking or wheeling as well which means we need to improve our paths and pavements but  depending on which part of it you live in This is why local voices need to be amplified and Green Councillors have been working on ensuring the council is listening – they’ve secured funding for a Community Climate Action Coordinator that will support local action on climate and they are pushing for progress on giving Community Councils more powers.” Housing will likely play a key part in this election with the Council having declared a housing emergency and homelessness levels in the city soaring Daniel is keen to continue the actions of Green representatives in Councils and the Scottish Parliament He said: “As regulations on rents and conditions are improved thanks to Green MSPs we need to ensure folk are aware of their rights which can be the difference in keeping a roof over their head and not having to make a choice between heating and eating Greens find it completely abhorrent and unacceptable that basic human rights are not being met and our classist society means there are massive disparities in how different people are able to advocate and organise for themselves Green Councillors in Edinburgh have been promoting the role of housing co-operatives and the work of the tenants’ union Living Rent to achieve this “In a society where the prevailing message is that you can only rely on yourself the Scottish Greens want to rebuild trust between people and send the message that we can rely on each other we also want to make sure that – as a city steeped in the legacy of colonialism – we’re dismantling unjust structures and extending solidarity to oppressed people around the world This is why Green Councillors in the past year have been keeping Palestine on the agenda at Edinburgh City Chambers and have sought assurances that council representatives do not engage with companies with links to slavery of the Uyghur Chinese people.” On Thursday 26 September the formal Notice of Election will be published and the Election Timetable Election Notices and Nomination Papers will all be accessible from the City of Edinburgh Council website Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council Following his election as Member of Parliament for the Edinburgh South West constituency in the UK Parliament Professor Scott Arthur has formally resigned as a member of the City of Edinburgh Council and I wish him well in the future Voters in the Colinton/Fairmilehead ward now have a chance to make their voices heard again to elect a councillor to take his place to represent them on the city of Edinburgh Council Candidates will be confirmed when nominations close at 4pm on Monday 14 October Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 14 November The election will use the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system where voters can rank candidates in order of preference rather than using a single cross Voters can give a rank to as many or as few candidates as they like Find out more about elections in Edinburgh and how to register to vote on the Council website. The deadline for all 47 community councils in Edinburgh is Thursday 27 February when a nomination form signed by the nominee and two residents of the local area must be returned (either online or on paper) A spokesperson for Colinton Community Council said: “ If fewer than six nominations are received there will be NO new Community Council to represent the views of the Colinton community or to ensure City of Edinburgh Council pays proper attention to important local issues!“ Access the nomination form here He claims that damning official figures shows that the average Scottish police officer puts just one individual behind bars every 8 months Mr Brown said: “When I talk to serving and retired police officers off the record they describe themselves as uniformed “tax collectors” “ambulance drivers” and uniformed “paper pushers” “What I’m told is often hard to believe an exasperated police officer said they had spent the whole of their last shift looking for minors who were not where they were meant to be an officer told me he issued an on the spot fine to one member of the public who dismissed it as: “an expensive night out” went on the record about how her force is “overwhelmed” by the “appalling” demands placed on it by other agencies She has called on other agencies to “step up” and allow the officers to focus on core policing “Police officers often tell me: “I joined to put bad people behind bars” but Most people know public services in Scotland are in crisis what is Edinburgh’s social work department doing to ease the strain And what of Edinburgh council’s police/community committee the same question could be asked of the other 31 council committees around Scotland.” Mr Brown is one of twelve candidates in the by-election being held in the ward on 14 November This will result in a by-election on 14 November 2024 to fill the vacancy in the three member ward of Colinton/Fairmilehead and Scottish Conservative Jason Rust at present The by-election has to be held within three months of the vacancy occurring A public announcement will be made in due course The resignation will take effect on 16 September when the council’s by-election machinery will begin Neil Cuthbert is standing as the Scottish Conservatives candidate but other parties are yet to confirm their selections Dr Arthur now holds the Edinburgh South West seat following in the footsteps of his former Labour colleague Alistair Darling who became Chancellor of the Exchequer Scott has recently advised that he is one of the 20 successful applicants in the lottery to propose a Private Member’s Bill in parliament Tracy Gilbert MP for Edinburgh North and Leith has also been successful in the ballot along with Wendy Chamberlain the LibDem MP for North East Fife and John Grady the Labour MP for Glasgow East He is one of 15 back bench MPs whose selection of legislation has a real chance of making it onto the statute books There were 458 MPs who entered the ballot out of the 650 sitting MPs at Westminster The choice is made by picking a number on a lottery ball and the results announced by the Clerk Assistant in the House of Commons A by-election will be held in the Colinton and Fairmilehead ward following the resignations of Councillor Marco Biagi and Councillor Louise Spence (who resigned after just ONE WEEK in post) Residents will go to the polls on 23 January 2025 to select two new councillors to represent the ward the formal Notice of Election will be published Election Notices and Nomination Papers will all be accessible on the Council website Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council and Returning Officer for Edinburgh Paul Lawrence said: “On 19 November I received the resignation of Councillor Marco Biagi and we immediately began making arrangements for a by-election in the ward of Colinton and Fairmilehead “Having now received the resignation of Councillor Louise Spence – who represented the same ward voters will now be asked to select two councillors instead of one when they go to the polls on 23 January “The formal notice of election will be updated and published as scheduled on Friday 6 December The process and timetable will remain the same.” Candidates will be confirmed when nominations close at 4pm on Thursday 17 December Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 23 January Find out more about elections in Edinburgh and how to register to vote on the Council website Nominations opened on Friday (6 December) for candidates to stand in the forthcoming Colinton/Fairmilehead by-election The by-election is being held following the resignations of Councillor Marco Biagi (SNP) and Councillor Louise Spence (Lib Dems) last month Colinton/Fairmilehead residents will go to the polls to elect two new councillors to represent the ward which also includes Bonaly The current electorate is 19,907 and turnout at the most recent by-election was 37.4% A Formal Notice of Election was also published today explaining how to stand as a candidate who is eligible to vote and how to make sure you are on the Electoral Register.  Voters have a range of options for casting their ballot – in person by post or by appointing someone they trust to vote in their place In order to stand as a candidate, individuals must submit nomination papers, which are available on the Council website Returning Officer for the City of Edinburgh Paul Lawrence said: “The Notice of Election signifies the official start of the election period for the Colinton / Fairmilehead ward “I would urge all residents in the ward to make sure they are registered and have their details or preference of how they would like to vote up to date in plenty of time “Anyone unsure about how to register where to vote or how to vote by post can find more information on the Council website.” Polling stations will be open from 7am to 10pm on 23 January 2025 Details of these will be announced in due course People aged 16 and over and all those legally resident – including foreign citizens – can register to vote in this election. Find out more about elections in Edinburgh and how to register to vote on the Council website The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday 7 January 2025 to apply for a postal vote the deadline is Wednesday 8 January 2025 and for a proxy vote the deadline is Wednesday 15 January 2025 The Colinton/Fairmilehead by-election result has been announced at Waverley Court has been duly elected to serve in the City of Edinburgh Council as a member for the Colinton/Fairmilehead Ward The declaration was made earlier today (Friday 15 November) by Returning Officer for Edinburgh said: “Thanks to everyone who took part in the by-election to elect a new councillor to represent their views on matters affecting the ward and the wider city I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Louise as a new councillor and I look forward to working with her “I also want to thank our elections team and council staff who have worked very hard over recent months to make sure this by-election ran so smoothly.” The turnout for the by-election was only 37.4% Following the loss of a Labour councillor (the by election was brought about by Labour councillor Scott Arthur’s election as an MP) the composition of the City of Edinburgh Council is now: For further details of the results and the Colinton/Fairmilehead by-election please see the Elections section of the Council website He is a local resident having lived in south Edinburgh since 1997 Mr Cuthbert has deep roots in the community and professes to have a “thorough understanding of local issues” Neil said: “As a Colinton/Fairmilehead resident I share the concerns of my neighbours about the state of local services “From repairing our roads and protecting our green spaces to improving our schools and cleaning the streets I’m committed to addressing the issues that matter most to our community I believe my local knowledge and experience make me well-equipped to represent our ward effectively on the City Council I’ll work tirelessly to ensure our voice is heard and to make our area an even better place to live.” Neil has been actively involved in local Conservative events for many years He previously stood as a candidate in the 2022 local elections and says he is looking forward to campaigning around the area again focusing on the issues that matter to local residents who has represented the area for the past twenty years said: “We have traditionally elected two Conservative councillors in our ward and I look forward to campaigning with Neil and continuing our track record of holding the Council to account and delivering for local people.” Paul Lawrence said: ‘Following his election as Member of Parliament for the Edinburgh South West constituency in the UK Parliament “Voters in the Colinton/Fairmilehead ward now have a chance to make their voices heard again to elect a councillor to take his place to represent them on the city of Edinburgh Council.” Find out more about elections in Edinburgh and how to register to vote on the Council website. The by-election has been triggered by the resignation of the Labour councillor who was elected as an MP in the General Election in July The two other councillors elected in 2022 for the three-member ward are the SNP’s Marco Biagi and the Conservatives’ Jason Rust Dr Mairianna Clyde is an academic with more than twenty years teaching experience at The Open University She is married and lives in south Edinburgh where she has been a community councillor for many years Dr Clyde said: “Small changes to streetscape can make a great difference to people’s lives I’m a great admirer of organisations like Living Streets who try to improve the detail of street design so that they are not ugly obstacle courses but safe and attractive spaces which facilitate neighbourly interactions “Doing something for the community is very important to me I like solving problems and helping neighbours I’m passionate about delivering on local priorities like warm homes I’m a persistent person and if elected I will fight hard for my constituents to achieve the services and results they deserve especially this winter with rising fuel prices and an end to the winter fuel payments which so many pensioners relied on.” said: “Mairianna is a proven local campaigner who will stand up for the people of Colinton Only the SNP can take on this Labour administration and their grubby deal with the Tories.” The party’s Neil Cuthbert was the outright winner with the highest number of first preference votes and along with his new colleague Labour’s Conor Savage will replace the former SNP and Liberal Democrat (previously Labour) councillors Cllr Cuthbert secured 32.6 per cent of the first preference votes cast The Scottish Conservatives’ gain came as a result of their vote share increasing by 12.9 per cent on last year’s by-election in the ward Mr Findlay said: “This is a superb by-election victory for the Scottish Conservatives and my congratulations go to Neil Cuthbert