Blow for council opposition groups as candidates quit

By MICHAEL BLACKLEY
Published on Saturday 15 October 2011 12:02

The two main opposition groups in Edinburgh have been hit by the late withdrawal of candidates set to fight May’s local elections.

Tory councillor Gordon Buchan announced to his group that he will stand down after the current council term on the night that his re- election was expected to be rubber-stamped, causing a decision on the candidate for his Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart ward to be delayed.

And the Labour group has also been hit by the late withdrawal of Ian Sullivan little over a week after he was selected to contest the Craigentinny/ Duddingston seat in place of former council leader Ewan Aitken.

One council source said many candidates have been put off standing by comments made by transport leader Gordon Mackenzie, who said he and other councillors on the board of tram firm TIE did not have the “right skill mix” for such a major project.

The source said: “A lot of people seem to have put their name forward then thought about it again and in the cold light of day – and with all this publicity about Gordon Mackenzie’s comments and all the rest of the stuff in the press about councillors – think ‘is it really for them?’.”

Cllr Buchan, who was elected for the first time in 2007 and is the Tories’ health and housing spokesman on the council, was widely expected to stand again. He said: “I have put a lot of time in and being a councillor is a large time commitment. I was not sure I could fulfil all my commitments, whether work, family or council.”

The father-of-two already works full time as a development director for transport consultants Halcrow and has been unable to vote on any issues relating to the tram project because his firm has acted for TIE. And he admitted to the workings of the public sector being “frustrating”.

He said: “The council is not the easiest place to work and some of the ways the City Chambers works are just bizarre. If you come from a private sector business background as I do, you think ‘why do they work this way?’ Everything seems to work so slowly.”

It is understood a potential replacement for Cllr Buchan put themselves forward after he made the decision on Wednesday night but the group decided to hold a full selection process over the coming weeks instead.

One Tory source said: “The meeting was stormy and it was all very last-minute. It was a shock to those at the meeting. I understand [group leader] Jeremy [Balfour] was shocked. They made him health and social care spokesman and he seemed to be one of the in-crowd.”

Meanwhile, Labour councillor Ewan Aitken announced last month that he is to stand down from May – only for Mr Sullivan, the candidate that was selected to replace him, to change his mind just over a week after because of “personal reasons”.

Councillor Lesley Hinds, chair of the Labour group at the City Chambers, said: “I know of a number of people on our selection panel who have not been selected and, looking at the list we have, I am absolutely convinced there are excellent candidates on the list.

Comments

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12

M78

Monday, October 17, 2011 at 12:04 PM

Before the ship sinks!!!

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11

nickcgardner

Monday, October 17, 2011 at 11:08 AM

Good to see a fightback starting against this rubbish web site :-) I used to enjoy catching up with the past week's stories, and found it easy to navigate. Now there's only three pages of news, and just as few news pictures as before. Another nail in the coffin of the ScotsmanEvening News :-(((

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10

Not Available

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 07:47 PM

Entirely agree with all the comments about this supposed new website. It is rubbish, difficult to navigate and find things. At least the old one worked. Please bring it back or is this just a ploy to make us pay for the hard copy editions.

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9

gingernut

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 07:45 PM

is it any wonder? after the lunacy of the tram project ,it is surprising if anyone would join up with this lot ?,it is not politicians we need to sort this one out, it is psychiatrists ,!!!!! just how any group of people could have allowed all those millions of pounds to go down the drain when there was already a first class bus service in operation is beyond believe !! the system of the running councils and also the goverment it's self is in need of massive reform !!we are plagued with people who haven't a clue !!,who make dreadful mistakes of which the people themselves have to pay for !!we need a new election because terrible mistakes were made , nobody in their right minds would have voted for a tory lib Dem goverment ,the very idea is horrendous

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8

gus1940

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 07:23 PM

The old web site was bad but this new 'improved' one is a shambles.

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7

Pedro de Orgiva

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 04:36 PM

The old site was great. Why on Earth did you change it to this

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6

Harry Palmer

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 03:48 PM

Slow News day. The Ian Sullivan story is so last month when he quit. However both these candidates standing down hardly qualifies as late withdrawls, six months before polling day and with no campaigning being done by any party! Poor Poor journalism from a poor paper with now a rotten website!

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Jams

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 03:42 PM

#1&2 - heartily agree on the website - not very user friendly and what appears to be increased content is often duplication of stories or old news. As for the story I can't blame the candidates for legging it. Its a bit like being offered a job on the Titanic, AFTER it has hit the iceberg.

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4

JakeTheSnake

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 03:29 PM

I don't like the new site and i won't be visiting again.

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Slateford

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 01:50 PM

#2. Totally agree this new site is awful!

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2

mellifluous bufo

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 12:53 PM

Two questions; 1) Why is Gordon Mackenzie still in a job? 2) How cr*p is the new EEN website? I thought the old one was bad, so pretty impressive to make the new one even worse!

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1

keyser soze

Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 12:24 PM

Labour could, for once ,do the residents of CraigentinnyDuddingston Ward a good turn by not having a Labour candidate at all next May. After having put up with the spineless and useless Ian Perry for many years, for the past 5 years we have had Ewan Aitken. The right rev. has proved himself to be as inept as Perry but also an overgrown child. The last thing we need in this ward is another one like Perry or Aitken. What we need is candidates who will stand up for the people and not protect endless council failings.

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