A Fife SNP councillor has quit the party and will sit as an independent member of the council.
Kate Stewart has represented the West Fife and Coastal Villages ward since she was elected in 2012.
She was re-elected in 2017, when she said it was “a privilege and a pleasure to serve”.
Mystery surrounds her decision to leave the SNP and Ms Stewart has declined to comment.
She said only: “I will continue to serve the West Fife and Coastal Villages.”
Fife Council’s SNP group leader, David Alexander, said Ms Stewart had decided to leave for personal reasons.
“We’ve not fallen out with her or anything like that,” he said.
“It was a personal decision and we’ve parted on good terms.
“We’re disappointed but she’s still a friend.”
The SNP co-leads Fife Council as part of a joint administration with Labour.
Despite Ms Stewart’s resignation, the party still has 29 councillors – more than any other party.
Labour has 23, the Conservatives 14 and the Liberal Democrats have seven.
East Neuk and Landward councillor Linda Holt quit the Conservative group in 2019 to sit as an independent member.
However, she recently joined George Galloway’s Alliance4Unity party, leaving Ms Stewart the only independent councillor.
Fife Council has already updated its website.
Ms Stewart stood as a Scottish Socialist Party candidate in the UK Parliament election in 2001, and again for the Scottish Parliament in 2003.
Campaign
During her time on the council, she has been instrumental in the campaign to commemorate women accused of witchcraft in the 1700s.
Last year, she helped organise an event to remember the accused women of Culross, Torryburn and Valleyfield.
An estimated 380 Fifers, most of them women, were accused of practising black magic between the 16th and 18th centuries.
Many were imprisoned, tortured, hanged and then burned.