The Conservative group at The City of Edinburgh Council has asked the Liberal Democrats to pay the costs of holding the November by-election in Colinton/Fairmilehead, estimated to be around £80,000.
The one remaining councillor in the ward where there have been three resignations in the last six months, Conservative councillor Jason Rust, has written to the leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council, Cllr Kevin Lang, 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, the staff costs for polling, and the costs of staging the electronic count.
The by-election resulted in a resounding win for the Liberal Democrat candidate, Louise Spence, who then resigned within just seven days. 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.
The by-election was triggered first of all by the resignation of Scott Arthur who was elected to Westminster in July. And then last week the SNP councillor in the same ward, Marco Biagi, resigned to take up a position as Special Adviser in The Scottish Government.A new by-election date of 23 January 2025 had just been announced when Ms Spence resigned.
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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 are feeling a lot 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.
“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, Alex Cole Hamilton, 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.
A copy of the letter is below:
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