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THE deputy leader of East Renfrewshire Council, Paul O'Kane, is stepping down from the role after being elected to Holyrood – and plans to donate…
A GREEN space in East Renfrewshire has been given protected status after years of campaigning by the community. Friends of Huntly Park (FoHP) was set up in 2017 in a bid to secure Fields In Trust protection for the Giffnock site. Now a motion has been passed by East Renfrewshire Council to protect the park from future development. It comes four years after Advance Construction submitted controversial plans for a £112million housing development at Braidbar Quarry, near Huntly Park. Those proposals left some local residents fearing new housing would have a “major impact” on the a...
THE SNP may have lost target seats because pro-Union groups spent tens of thousands of pounds on digital ads pushing tactical voting, an investigation has revealed. The SNP and Scottish Greens won a total of 72 seats in Holyrood on a record turnout for the Scottish Parliament elections of 63% – 10% higher than the previous average. But an OpenDemocracy report found the party could have lost key seats, which prevented them from achieving an outright majority, due to social media adverts with a lack of transparency over funding. The site found a group called Young Unionists s...
DENYING the SNP an overall majority was a “collective effort” by Unionists, according to John Curtice. The polling expert was writing in The Scotsman after the SNP and Scottish Greens won a total of 72 seats in Holyrood on a record turnout for the Scottish Parliament elections of 63% – 10% higher than the previous average. Curtice said the SNP’s lack of an outright majority was because Unionist voters voted for a party in each constituency that had the potential to beat the SNP. He said: “Denying the SNP an overall majority was, indeed, a collective effort – at least...
Submitting... Both the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP saw their votes increase, while Scottish Labour took a hit in the constituency, with candidate Katie Pagnell winning only 6,759 votes. Former Scottish Conservative Leader Jackson Carlaw held on to his seat in Eastwood. Turnout in the constituency was one of the highest in Scotland, at 76.2 per cent. Professor Nicola McEwen, professor of territorial politics at Edinburgh University, told the BBC the loss of the Eastwood seat suggested the SNP may not get their much sought-after majority of 65 seats. She said: “It is looking perhaps le...