The SNP’s Brenda Durno has been elected as a new member of Angus Council as the result of the Arbroath East and Lunan by-election was announced this morning.
Six candidates competed for the seat, which was vacated by outgoing councillor Bob Spink, after his retirement on health grounds in September.
Voting took place on Monday with the count – conducted by single transferable vote – taking place in Angus Council’s headquarters in Forfar on Tuesday morning.
A total of 2,668 votes were cast out of a possible 12,386, representing a turnout of 21.5%.
The announcement of the winner was made by the council’s chief executive Richard Stiff.
The first preference votes received were:
Brenda Durno (SNP) – 919 votes
Richard Moore (Liberal Democrats) – 60 votes
John Ruddy (Scottish Labour) – 177 votes
Kevin Smith (Independent) – 309 votes
Lois Speed (Independent) – 452 votes
Derek Wann (Scottish Conservatives) – 709 votes
There were 42 spoiled ballots.
Mrs Durno, 54, who runs an artificial flower business in Arbroath vowed to do her best for the area.
She said: “I have two grandsons and I want to make it a better place for them.
“I got a good reaction from people when I was campaigning.
“Because of the cuts coming up it’s going to be hard and I’m looking to do more community projects – getting people who have maybe been made redundant or who are retired involved in men’s sheds so they can help our garden projects and food banks.
“I want to be focused on local issues and community projects.
“Communities are getting lost because everyone is sitting on laptops and not speaking to each other.
“With the cuts that are coming communities are going to have to get together more to try to help each other out.”
Mr Spink was first elected as an independent for the former Hayshead and Lunan ward in 2003, and was re-elected to this ward under proportional representation in 2007, along with two SNP candidates and a Conservative.
