RESIGNATIONS– Labourcouncillors Care Steel and Fiona Hennerbry.
by Bill Heaney
Two Labour councillors resigned from the Labour administration at West Dunbartonshire Council last night.
The Labour Party has a majority of just TWO and the casting vote is in the hands of SNP Provost Karen Conaghan, who was only elected after yet another split in the Labour ranks.
News of the resignations began to break in the middle of the afternoon.
They were confirmed later in evening around 7pm, but no one was making themselves available for comment.
Both councillors represent the Dalmuir area of Clydebank and Councillor Steel has a special interest in representing vulnerable elderly and housebound people.
She only emerged as a candidate for the Council at the last election after a long-running battle with the then SNP administration over aids to make her home accessible to her son who is disabled.
Speculation in the community so far is that Councillor Steel may have resigned because she is dismayed at the way both cared for people and carers themselves have been treated by the council over a redesign plan.
The care service is run confusingly between the Council and the Health and Social Care Partnership.
It appears that the Council receives the budget to administer the service but has no power over how it is run.
The crackpot council was as per usual not available for comment on any of this last night because they have banned The Dumbarton Democrat from speaking to them.
That nonsense has been going on for the past five years since the Council claimed we disrupted a meeting and were disrespectful to the then Provost Willie Hendry.
The truth of the matter is that when the Council broke for lunch we asked if they could turn the sound up and place us somewhere in the chamber where we could see the faces of those who were speaking so that we could identify them for our reports.
The Council said there was nothing wrong with the sound or the sight from the chamber gallery but later spent £52,000 to have it fixed.
The most recent reports are that it has still not been repaired and that was evident at a recent special meeting when members of the public had difficulty hearing the debates from the public gallery.
Councillor Hennebry was elected with 1425 votes after four stages of the Single Transferable Vote system which asks voters to mark their preference in numerical order.
She joined three councillors who currently represent the ward; councillor Diane Docherty (Independent), councillor Clare Steel (Labour), and councillor Sophie Traynor (Scottish National Party).
Councillor Diane Docherty, Cllr Sophie Traynor and Dame Jackie Baillie.
Councillor Docherty has also been in the election wars having resigned from the SNP group on the Council and Cllr Traynor has been selected by the SNP to contest the Dumbarton seat in the Scottish Parliament on May 7 which is held by Dame Jackie Baillie, who has held it since the parliament first met.
Turnout for the by-election was just 24.3 per cent of the electorate, with 2845 votes cast.
SNP candidate Marina Scanlan came second after the fourth stage with 1127 votes while the Scottish Conservatives’ Ewan McGinnigle came third with 130.
It is now posible that Marina Scanlan, whose husband Gordon is an SNP councillor, will run for one of the seats vacated by Steel and Hennerby.
At the time of her election, Councillor Hennebry vowed to put the people of Clydebank at the forefront of all she would do in office.
“I am privileged to serve the people of Clydebank Central. To achieve 49.6 per cent in the first count is phenomenal and I am looking forward to returning West Dunbartonshire Council to a Labour majority,” she said.
Scanlan, meanwhile, praised her campaign team and insisted she is positive about the future.
“I am really proud of our activists and the campaign that we ran,” she said.
“It is a great foundation to base ourselves on ahead of the general election. I am not disappointed at all.
The defeated Tory candidate Ewan McGinnigle explained why he believed the result showed that Clydebank was ready to reject SNP policies.
“Of course, it is disappointing to lose but I am proud of our campaign and I think Fiona will make a fantastic councillor as I have heard wonderful things about her,” he said.
Announcing the new councillor, returning officer Peter Hessett added: “Congratulations to our newly elected councillor, Fiona Hennebry, and thank you to all of the candidates who put themselves forward to represent the people of Clydebank Central.
“The role of councillor is vital within local communities. Elected members ensure residents voices are heard on a range of important issues and strive for high standards in public services.
“I am grateful to everyone who voted in this by-election and to staff who ensured the democratic process of electing the new councillor ran smoothly and safely.”
- The figures for views and visitors to The Dumbarton Democrat were touching on 20,000 at 9pm on Saturday, February 28, 2026. Editor
Congratulations on the numbers visiting the Dumbarton Democrat.
This readership is bigger than many of the newspapers. Good stuff Ed.