Colinton/Fairmilehead by-election – Dr Mairianna Clyde

Dr Mairianna Clyde is the SNP candidate in this week’s by-election in Colinton/Fairmilehead where there are two councillor positions to fill.

The first position was vacated by Dr Scott Arthur in autumn last year after he was elected to Westminster, and the second came about after Marco Biagi the former SNP Minister resigned from the council to take a job at Holyrood as a special adviser.

Dr Clyde has been an academic with the Open University teaching history. She is married and lives in south  Edinburgh where she has been a community councillor for many years, mainly covering local planning issues. She stood for the party in the neighbouring Morningside ward in the 2022 council election. 

Dr Clyde has been active in helping to save several local heritage sites, sometimes working with developers to modify designs so that they improve better outcomes for residents like safer routes to school or access to green spaces. She believes strongly in collaborative working to achieve the wellbeing economy.

She is concerned about the antiquated way of collecting rubbish, the condition of the roads and young people’s mental health.

She considers that the tourist tax should be spent partly on housing for local people. If elected then she will have to vote with the SNP group which was disappointed not to persuade councillors last week to use their way of increasing funding for even more new council homes.

The by-election will be held on 23 January and the candidates are listed here.