Following her successful General Election campaign and her appointment as an MP one has to forgive Leith councillor Deidre Brock for deciding that she has enough on her plate. She is now one of the 56 SNP MPs at Westminster, but continues as a councillor for the Leith Walk ward meantime.
She has however handed in her resignation as Depute Lord Provost, and so it fell to the Council to appoint a new one at their meeting today.
The person appointed had to be an SNP councillor, and of course there is one who has not only held the position before but who was recently freed up from his duties as Festivals Champion.
There is no debating that Councillor Steve Cardownie who represents Forth Ward is an experienced councillor. He was first elected in 1988, but at that stage he was a Labour Party representative. He switched to the SNP in 2005 claiming that the reason for the change was that he believed in independence for Scotland.
Councillor Cardownie spoke exclusively to The Edinburgh Reporter this morning:
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He was the sole SNP councillor until 2007 (almost unthinkable now that SNP are an almost equal part of the Capital Coalition). The SNP then became coalition partners in the last council in with the Liberal Democrats, and are now a large part of today’s council with some of the conveners drawn from the SNP group.
Cardownie was until recently the Deputy Leader of the Council but stepped down in favour of Councillor Sandy Howat earlier this year.
It is undoubtedly true that Councillor Cardownie has much experience on the front benches of the council and he told The Edinburgh Reporter that he will relish his new position: “I always like to have the opportunity to extol the virtues of this city. It’s not quite a new role but a different role for me but I am looking forward to undertaking any duties that the Lord Provost might give me!”
The Lord Provost was quick to point out that the new Depute Lord Provost will sit in his chair next month at the full council meeting when the Lord Provost currently has a prior engagement.
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