Edinburgh council candidates standing in Pentland Hills are calling for improved public transport links to the city centre, safer cycling routes and tougher action on fly-tipping.
The ward is being contested by nine hopefuls from seven parties in May's local elections, with the SNP and Conservatives both standing two candidates in the area.
Covering the rural south-west of the capital, the Pentland Hills boundary includes Baberton, Balerno, Currie, Juniper Green and Ratho and the Heriot-Watt University campus, as well as Wester Hailes, Clovenstone and The Calders.
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Among the recent developments in the ward is approval of plans for a new £50 million 'ultra low energy' community high school in Currie, upgrades to make council homes in Wester Hailes more energy efficient and motorists' anger at potholes and speeding in Balerno.
Like the neighbouring Almond ward, a redrawing of the boundary map ahead of the 2017 local elections resulted in Pentland Hills changing from a three to a four-member ward. The vote saw the Conservatives increase their share of first preference votes (FPv) by 12 per cent and win the new seat.
Since the introduction of the multi-member Single Transferable Vote, people living in Pentland Hills have elected Conservative, SNP and Labour members to the council. A close race at the last ballot saw a candidate from each of the three parties elected in the first round of counting.
The SNP will be hoping to claw back support lost between the two previous elections - falling from almost 30 per cent of FPv in 2012 to 21 per cent in 2017 - and take the fourth seat from the Tories in its re-election attempt.
Any success for Greens and Liberal Democrats in Pentland Hills would come as a surprise on results day — the latter party famously got fewer votes than Mike 'Professor Pongoo' Ferrigan, the penguin-dressed candidate who ran in the ward in 2012.
2017 Results
1 - Graeme Bruce, Conservatives 27.2% FPv (3,083 total)
2 - Neil Gardiner, SNP 21.1% FPv (2,382 total)
3 - Ricky Henderson, Labour 20.6% FPv (2,334 total)
4 - Susan Webber, Conservative 14% FPv (2,293 total)
2022 Candidates
After being elected as a regional MSP on the Lothian list at last year's Scottish Parliment elections, the Conservatives' Sue Webber will not seek re-election to Edinburgh City Council. Emma Gilchrist, a chartered surveyor, will run instead alongside incumbent Tory councillor Graeme Bruce.
She said voters in Pentland Hills want "a really good public transport system", adding the current system in place in Edinburgh has been "hacked away at".
As Ricky Henderson, a Pentland Hills Labour councillor for the past 15 years, steps down from his role, Stephen Jenkinson will be the party's candidate this year, pledging to tackle fly-tipping, grafitti, dog fouling and weeds in the ward.
Meanwhile, The SNP's Neil Gardiner, who's been the council's Planning Convener for the last five years, is standing again with new party candidate Fiona Glasgow.
Full list of candidates standing in Pentland Hills
Graeme Bruce, Scottish Conservative and Unionist;
Michael William Chappell, Scottish Liberal Democrats;
Richard Fettes, Scottish Family Party: Pro-Family, Pro-Marriage, Pro-Life;
Neil Thomas Gardiner, Scottish National Party (SNP);
Emma Gilchrist, Scottish Conservative and Unionist;
Fiona Glasgow, Scottish National Party (SNP);
Stephen Philip Jenkinson, Scottish Labour Party;
Ross Muller, Scottish Green Party;
Louis Rowlands, Scottish Libertarian Party;
