THE holders of the top positions at East Ayrshire Council will all be staying in their roles - at least for another 12 months.
Councillors voted to retain the current Provost, leader and cabinet members as well as committee chairs and vice-chairs.
The composition of the local authority's cabinet also remains unchanged, as do all the 'cabinet spokesperson' roles.
It means that SNP councillor Douglas Reid (Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse) remains the authority's leader, with Jim McMahon (SNP, Cumnock and New Cumnock) staying on as depute leader.
The council's two top civic posts will also remain in SNP hands, with Jim Todd (Kilmarnock South) staying on as Provost and Claire Leitch (Ballochmyle) as his depute.
Councillors Maureen McKay (Kilmarnock North) and John McFadzean (Annick) remain leaders of the Labour and Conservative opposition groups respectively.
Both opposition parties put forward their own candidates for Provost, with William Crawford (Cumnock and New Cumnock) nominated by Labour and James Adams (Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse) by the Conservatives.
The Conservative group also put forward their own candidates for leader and depute leader, with Neill Watts (Cumnock and New Cumnock) nominating Cllr McFadzean as leader and Cllr McFadzean returning the favour by nominating Cllr Watts for the deputy's post.
But the members of the authority's ruling SNP minority administration won the day in each one of the votes.
The current political composition of East Ayrshire Council is:
- Scottish National Party (SNP): 14
- Scottish Labour Party: 9
- Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party: 4
- Independent: 3
- Rubbish Party: 1
- Labour and Co-operative Party: 1
The votes all took place at the council's last meeting before the summer recess, on Thursday, June 27.
East Ayrshire Council is unusual in that its standing orders require the holders of all the authority's senior political and civic appointments to be elected on an annual basis.
In most other Scottish local authorities, the roles are filled at the first meeting after an election and remain unchanged until the following election, unless any of the office holders stands down or one or more of the opposition parties mounts a successful challenge to take over the reins of power.
The latest vote means there was no repeat of the events of June 2021, when Cllrs Todd and Leitch were controversially voted out after Labour, the Tories and Cllr Sally Cogley of the 'Rubbish Party' joined forces to back Labour's Barry Douglas for the top civic job.
Councillors Todd and Leitch were both reappointed to the roles less than a year later following the local government election of May 2022.
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