Ronnie McColl beaten in National Park board election
By Bill Heaney
Ronnie McColl, father of West Dunbartonshire Council leader Jonathan McColl, came third in the election of a member to serve on the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority.
Mr McColl, a former SNP councillor in Dumbarton and Alexandria, polled just 101 votes in the postal ballot for a seat on the Balloch-based quango. He stood in Ward 5 – it covers the west bank of the Loch – which has an electorate of 2,349.
His son, who leads the SNP group on the council, has recently “come round” to opposing the controversial Flamingoland application for planning permission in principle for a leisure development at Drumkinnon Bay.
The total votes cast was just 619 and the percentage poll 26.4%
Iain Strachan, Depute Returning Officer for Ward 5 announced that the total number of votes polled for each candidate at the election was as follows:
Gwen Jones-Edwards 74
Ronnie McColl 101
David McCowan 242
Gavin David Monson 108
Iain Shonny Paterson 94
As reported in The Democrat earlier, the seat was won by the sitting member, Loch Lomondside businessman, David McCowan.
Only the winners’ names were reported on the National Park website.
The other five places on the Park board will be by Ministerial appointment but remarkably the time limit for application was past when it was publicised.
Will be interesting to see if Mr McCowan believes he has a conflict of interest by owning a business within Balloch, when the Flamingo Land application comes up for approval.