A SCOTTISH Labour councillor has won a by-election in Stirling Council. After all preferences were counted, Scottish Labour candidate David Wilson was elected at stage six with 44.6% on a turnout of 34.1%.
The party's deputy leader Jackie Baillie took to Twitter/X to congratulate Wilson on a "great win".
Stuart McLuckie, representing the Scottish Conservatives, came in second place with 33.2%. A total of 907 votes (22.2%) did not transfer.
In terms of first preference votes, McLuckie received a total of 1143 and Wilson 952.
SNP candidate John Watson received 770 first preference votes while the Greens' Andrew Adam was only slightly behind on 659.
Dunblane and Bridge of Allan (Stirling) by-election, first preferences (vs Jan 24 by-election):Conservative: 1143 (27.9%, -10.4) Labour: 952 (23.3%, +3.0) SNP: 770 (18.8%, -4.5) Green: 659 (16.1%, +6.0) Lib Dem: 345 (8.4%, +1.6) Independent: 225 (5.5%, new) Lab elected stage 6 pic.twitter.com/pAehTm2TkE
— Ballot Box Scotland (@BallotBoxScot) August 15, 2024
The pair were followed by LibDem candidate Dick Moerman with 345 votes and then independent Alastair Majury, who picked up 225 first preference votes.
The by-election was held to replace former councillor Ewan Dillon, who was sentenced to perform unpaid work after being caught with child abuse material and resigned on the day he admitted to downloading indecent images of children.
He was initially elected as a Labour councillor but became an independent in October 2022.
Speaking after the election, Wilson told The Courier he was in “total shock”.
He said: “We weren’t expecting it. We’ve really done a lot of hard work over the last six weeks. We’ve been out every day.
“And we do have a lot of work for myself because we’ve been talking to the people of Bridge of Allan and Dunblane and I will honour what I’ve said to the electorate there.”
He continued: “Obviously we’ve got issues with education and we’ve got a lot of people that are having real problems getting access to the help they need.
“And I want to see what I can do for them.”
Returning officer Brian Roberts thanked council staff for their involvement. He said: “I would like to say a huge thanks to all our staff and partners who helped deliver the Dunblane and Bridge of Allan by-election.
“Elections involve months of careful planning and preparation and, of course, the UK Parliamentary General Election has also been delivered during the time we have had to plan for this by-election.
“Teams across the council have worked together to ensure the processes have run smoothly and successfully.
“Local government decisions impact on every aspect of people’s lives, so it is important that citizens engage in the democratic process – thanks to everyone who participated in this election.”
He also offered his congratulations to Wilson on his success and said everyone at Stirling Council "looks forward to working with him over the coming years".
Stirling Council is led by a minority Labour administration and the party now has six councillors following the latest by-election.
