Tain and Easter Ross councillor Richard Durham welcomes a new colleague to represent the ward and argues that...
IT is good to know that local democracy is alive and well in Easter Ross. The by-election to replace the late and sadly missed Alan Torrance as one of the three councillors to represent Tain and Easter Ross produced five competent local candidates all of whom made their cases at the local hustings which took place last Wednesday night in the assembly hall of Tain Academy.
Three of the candidates were Independents, standing as local folk seeking to do their best as representatives of the Easter Ross community, and two stood as representatives of political parties. These two however made it very clear at the hustings that they would not allow their party affiliations to cloud their representation of the local community on important issues.
The election took place last Thursday and the count on the following Friday morning in the Duthac centre in Tain. As with all local elections now, the result was determined by the single transferable vote system and this particular election was a very good illustration of the system working as it should.
The count was - even to a neutral - a very exciting affair. Once the quota or winning line was established, the five candidates' votes as first preferences were tallied up, placing Derek Louden slightly ahead of Fiona Robertson, with Ruairidh Mackenzie lying third, followed by Antony Gardiner and Mike Herd.
As no candidate crossed the winning line of 50 per cent of the votes cast +1, the last candidate dropped out and his 2nd preference votes were redistributed.
Still no result, so the second last candidate followed, allowing his 2nd preference votes being allocated to the remaining candidates. Still no result! Derek Louden was still slightly ahead.
Now Ruairidh Mackenzie dropped out and his 574 first preference votes were redistributed as second votes to the remaining candidates, Fiona Robertson and Derek Louden. This final redistribution of votes allowed Fiona to overtake Derek in the final furlong of a keenly contested race to be elected by 1,204 votes to Derek's 1,037.
This election perfectly illustrates why second preference votes can be just as important as first preference ones. I believe that the result is good for the district.
All five candidates could potentially have represented local views effectively but the people of the ward have made their choice and Fiona Robertson now joins Alasdair Rhind and myself as local councillors on the Highland Council. Together we will make a strong team for Tain and Easter Ross.
This by-election encapsulates the choice the people of the Highlands will have to make at next year's council elections in May. Since the last election when the council went "political", political parties began to drive the council thus causing the necessary formation of groups, particularly the "Independent" group.
It is this independent group of councillors, all local individual people who quietly have driven the route the council has taken, without continually resorting to "spin" that the political parties constantly use against one another.
The road ahead for the next number of years is going to be very difficult. Finance officials from Edinburgh have already made very clear that the central funding that makes over 80 per cent of local government income will reduce for the next five years.
I personally believe local democracy is much better served by individual community representation rather than by political parties in this challenging financial situation. However this assertion is a "debate" which needs to happen at length over the next year before next May.
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