Arran candidates pitch for votes

Charles Currie, Scottish Labour

North Ayrshire Labour has announced islander Charles Currie will be the party’s candidate for the forthcoming Arran by-election.

Charles’ family connection to Arran goes back hundreds of years, with his family owning a farm at Drumadoon, Shiskine, which Charles ran in the 1970s and 1980s.

His working life has seen him serve as a tourism manager for Isle of Arran Tourist Board and Argyll and the Island’s Enterprise Company in the 1990s.

His successful DJ business organised discos, including founding the infamous ’Shiski Diski’ in 1968, and provided music at many island weddings. He ended his varied working career as one of the island’s posties.

A former chairman of the Arran Ferry Commitee, member of Arran Community Council, chairman of Shiskine Hall Committee and the man behind the Banner’s weekly football column, the Fanatic, Charles has given decades of dedicated service to island residents in a host of unpaid, voluntary roles.

Today, Charles is a welcoming face to the island’s many visitors as a guide at Isle of Arran Heritage Museum.

Announcing his selection, Charles cited the damage the SNP’s ferry fiasco has inflicted on his beloved island as the reason he chose to stand.

Charles said: “I am delighted to have been selected as the Labour candidate for Arran, a party I have been a member of for many years.

“I have served Arran residents in a variety of roles over the years but have never stood for election. That changes today.

“The way the SNP’s ferry fiasco has damaged this island means enough is enough. With my community links, and varied experience including in tourism and with the Arran Ferry Committee, I am ready to serve my island as our elected councillor.”

Carole Thomson, Reform UK

My name is Carole Thomson. I am Scottish born and bred, but worked for many years in Germany where I married and had children. I was a state registered nurse and worked within the German healthcare service before taking early retirement and returning to Scotland to live in Ardrossan.

I have always had a keen interest in local affairs and local policy prompting me to offer myself to public service. I have a keen interest in Arran and intend to relocate to the island soon.

If elected, I will work to represent the population on and off the island, attending events and holding regular workshops to provide the links to local government on the mainland representing the interests of Arran within North Ayrshire Council and presenting the island to external interests.

I regard living off the island as an advantage. I can perform the role of external representative. Local services - roads, healthcare, transport and superfast wi-fi - are of particular interest to me along with attraction of tourism and investment to the island with a focus on developing opportunities for young people.

I will also support agriculture on the island and lobby for the regeneration of food production.

In times of limited local authority budgets, I will present the case for a fair share of resources to the island, given the higher costs of living on Arran and the disadvantages placed on us by an unreliable ferry service.

Neil Wilkinson, Scottish Greens

My name is Neil Wilkinson and I am standing for the Scottish Greens to be your next councillor.

As your voice on North Ayrshire Council, I will put your perspectives at the forefront of everything I do.

Your priorities will be my priorities and I will spend every day between now and the next election working for you.

I became Arran’s housing officer in 2010 and in the years since have helped and advised hundreds of you.

Whether it is trying to secure social housing, advising those in the private sector of their rights or supporting those forced into homelessness, every day has been spent working for you. It is this ethos I hope to continue if I am privileged enough to be elected as your councillor.

With only one councillor covering Arran, it could not be more important to ensure we select the right person. My history as a full-time advocate for the ordinary residents of Arran makes me the ideal candidate and my love of this island - an affection which drove me to move here well over a decade ago - means I will do everything in my power to protect it and its people.

Selecting the right candidate becomes even more important when you consider the future of our life on Arran. We are all plagued by the day-to-day chaos of the horrific ferry fiasco which has often left us cut off from the mainland, our businesses hamstrung and our island economy hanging by a thread. But the ecological future of our island should also be on all of our mind.

North Ayrshire Council spent significant money developing a net-zero plan for Arran. This was published in June 2023, but nothing seems to have been done in the year since. We cannot afford to delay any longer and, if elected, I promise to push for action which involves businesses and citizens in its implementation.

With no candidate from the SNP, only a vote for me and the Scottish Greens can ensure we are not stuck with a Tory councillor - a party which has shown itself to be in freefall and pandering to a politics of hate - for the next few years. We should take this opportunity to make history and elect a Green councillor for the first time who will put the future of Arran and its residents first.