Councillors hit back at misleading reports over East Renfrewshire library closures glasgowtimes.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from glasgowtimes.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A GREEN space in East Renfrewshire has been given protected status after years of campaigning by the community. Friends of Huntly Park (FoHP) was set up in 2017 in a bid to secure Fields In Trust protection for the Giffnock site. Now a motion has been passed by East Renfrewshire Council to protect the park from future development. It comes four years after Advance Construction submitted controversial plans for a £112million housing development at Braidbar Quarry, near Huntly Park. Those proposals left some local residents fearing new housing would have a “major impact” on the area’s wildlife, which includes badgers and bats.
THE SNP may have lost target seats because pro-Union groups spent tens of thousands of pounds on digital ads pushing tactical voting, an investigation has revealed. The SNP and Scottish Greens won a total of 72 seats in Holyrood on a record turnout for the Scottish Parliament elections of 63% – 10% higher than the previous average. But an OpenDemocracy report found the party could have lost key seats, which prevented them from achieving an outright majority, due to social media adverts with a lack of transparency over funding. The site found a group called Young Unionists spent more than £20,000 on Facebook ads, including more than £5000 in the final days of the campaign. Tens of thousands of voters were pushed to the VoteUnion tactical voting tool.
DENYING the SNP an overall majority was a “collective effort” by Unionists, according to John Curtice. The polling expert was writing in The Scotsman after the SNP and Scottish Greens won a total of 72 seats in Holyrood on a record turnout for the Scottish Parliament elections of 63% – 10% higher than the previous average. Curtice said the SNP’s lack of an outright majority was because Unionist voters voted for a party in each constituency that had the potential to beat the SNP. He said: “Denying the SNP an overall majority was, indeed, a collective effort – at least on the part of Unionist voters, who on the constituency ballot demonstrated a remarkable willingness to back whichever pro-union party appeared to be best placed locally to defeat the SNP.”