THE most prominent councillor to be unseated in the local government elections was Helen Law, who spoke for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on educational matters. Mrs Law chaired the children’s services committee in Fife and was defeated by a campaigner on local hospital issues.
Her departure will set up a struggle to become the education voice of Cosla. With the departure of Glasgow from the convention, it will be surprising if Edinburgh, which has no prominent Cosla position but pays the largest subvention, does not lay claim to it.
Jean McKeown, convener of South Lanarkshire’s education committee, was beaten by a local parent fighting to save Earnock High in Hamilton from closure. Tommy Gilligan, a retired teacher at the school and a former local president of the Educational Institute of Scotland, also defeated the sitting Labour councillor.
In Scottish Borders, John Ross Scott, the Liberal Democrat leader of the council, was unseated by a campaigner who opposes the closure of the Hawick campus of Borders College.
