Stuart strides forward to victory for SNP in Buckie by-election
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IT'S back to business for Buckie – that was the pledge from Buckie's new SNP councillor John Stuart after he claimed victory in Thursday's by-election.
The fate of the vacant seat, previously held by Lib Dem councillor Chris Price, who resigned in August, went to a stage 4 count at the Fishermen's Hall today (Friday).
Mr Stuart fell agonisingly close at stage 1, his 1172 just 0.7 per cent – 27 votes – short of the required quota to be declared the outright victor. His nearest rival, Tory candidate and former Buckie councillor Tim Eagle, received 879 votes, with Labour's Keighly Goudie attracting 239 ballots, Less Tarr (Lib Dems) 67 and unaffiliated candidate Neil Houlden 38.
Stage 4 saw Mr Stuart and Mr Eagle go head to head, and while the former's redistributed vote tally stood just short of the quota, he was nevertheless comfortably ahead of his rival.
The result means that the SNP have nine seats on Moray Council, level with the minority administration Conservative group.
A total of 2408 votes were cast, of which 13 were rejected, the total votes representing 29.6 per cent of an electorate numbering 8139.
After being named as the new councillor for Buckie by Returning Officer Denise Whitworth, Mr Stuart said: "Firstly, I just wanted to say thank you very much to all our voters in the community who've come out and voted for myself.
"Obviously my campaign has been about Buckie and being a strong voice for Buckie and that will continue and start from today and, moving forward, will continue on Monday next week when we pick up on council business.
"Behind the scenes and in front of the scenes we have the election staff, those behind the scenes working their magic on postal votes and at all the polling stations and all the immense work that all the polling stations representatives do during the day. They work long hours and it was a privilege to meet all of them and see them off as they finished up for the day."
He went on to pay tribute to his "amazing" campaign team, including election agent Councillor Jeremie Fernandes, Buckie SNP councillor Sonya Warren, Banffshire and Buchan Coast SNP MSP Karen Adam and other SNP councillors.
He concluded: "It's back to business."
Mr Stuart went on to say the count had been stressful at times.
"It was quite nerve-racking although it was a joy to see the count processes but I was really nervous," he continued.
"I think when my son William came in it calmed me a little bit, which was really good.
"We were getting good indications from the [counting] tables as the count progressed and we got so close to that 50 per cent mark in terms of the first round. That was really encouraging.
"On the doorsteps we got a good indication of what some of the voters were going to do when we were out canvassing but there's always that little bit of concern when votes go to redistribution that it leans more towards the other parties than the SNP; the question was would we be able to maintain it and make the ground that we had to."
Mr Stuart went on to say issues such as housing, anti-social behaviour, Buckie swimming pool, Buckie Community High School, the cost of living crisis and supporting local businesses all featured highly on the doorstep during the campaign.
He said: "This was all stuff we were campaigning on so we hit the ground running."
It will be a baptism of fire on Monday for Buckie's new councillor when the controversial issue of whether it is BCHS or Forres Academy which is awarded a new build will come before elected members.
Looking ahead to his term as a councillor, Mr Stuart said: "We're in a massive cost of living crisis which is very important and really at the forefront of people's minds.
"We've got the high school, which is really important in terms of Buckie, and dealing with anti-social behaviour.
"There's the road safety survey, which will feed back from the community council.
"It's going to be about getting Buckie's voice heard. The infrastructure plans for the new housing developments, there's a lot of stuff there which needs to be examined to ensure we have the appropriate structures in place to support it so we don't pile more problems onto an already stretched infrastructure."
Mr Stuart added he was looking forward to working with Councillor Warren, who he had previously collaborated with through his voluntary efforts with Buckie Kindness Group, as well as Buckie's Independent councillor Neil McLennan as part of "Team Buckie".
Welcoming her new colleague to the fold, Councillor Warren commented: "It's going to be great to have a second SNP councillor here in Buckie.
"We're going to be working hard for Buckie and Moray as a whole."
Also at the count was local SNP MSP Karen Adam, who hailed the "ringing endorsement" handed to Mr Stuart.
“The people of Buckie have spoken and given a ringing endorsement for the SNP and John Stuart, who has been a stalwart of the local community. Residents of Buckie, Findochty, Portessie, Rathven, and Arradoul have firmly rejected the damaging policies of the Conservative administration in power at Moray Council.
“I’ll be working hard alongside Councillor John Stuart and Councillor Sonya Warren for the benefit of the residents of Buckie and Moray. Battling the UK government’s self-inflicted cost-of-living crisis is a main priority for the SNP and our elected representatives and we’ll be doing everything we can across our remits to support good governance and the people we represent.”
Her Moray colleague, Richard Lochhead, added: "I’m delighted that John has been elected as the new SNP councillor for Buckie, adding to our hard working SNP group on Moray Council.
“John will be a dedicated local champion and councillor and I know he’ll be a strong voice, alongside Sonya Warren, for the people of Buckie.
“This is also a fantastic result for the SNP locally, having increased our vote share which sees the SNP group grow to nine councillors and draw level with the current Tory administration group, whose position will have no doubt been further weakened by this result.
“The Tory candidate was their Scottish Parliament candidate just last year and is a former councillor for the ward so this is a big blow for them and they are clearly paying the price for wrecking our economy and damaging the country.”
Councillor McLennan, who was originally elected on a Conservative ticket but now sits as an Independent, congratulated Mr Stuart and said the result was a warning shot his former colleagues chose to ignore at their peril.
He said: "The electorate have sent a strong message today and it is a message I have made to the Conservative Party for some time now – it needs reformed in Moray, in Scotland and across the UK.
"It is withering as a result of the way it is being led and values it is espousing.
"I am delighted for Buckie’s new councillor John Stuart of the SNP. From my interactions with him, I can see a dedicated community servant with public service expertise and a great way with people.
"I believe Councillor Warren, Councillor Stuart and I will stand up for Buckie, especially against this administration who seem to have no direction for our ward nor indeed for Moray as a whole.
"I feel greatly for Tim Eagle who is also a hugely committed local servant with significant experience and expertise. He may have been better standing as in independent candidate as sadly the current position of his party locally and nationally will have contributed significantly to him not getting elected. He is popular, well liked and hopefully will still contribute to improving the area in other ways.
"For now, the key issue is next week’s education committee and challenging the administration on a decision that we are being asked to make without fully up to date information; and the potential politicisation of re-raising papers on the matter despite having tabled them before and then spoken about them in private. Questions will be asked about governance and they need answered."
