Labour has regained control of North Ayrshire Council after the new councillors held their first meeting.

Following a vote by elected members, Councillor Joe Cullinane was named Leader of the Council with Councillor John Bell as Depute Leader. 

The Council will operate as a minority Labour administration. Four Tories voted for the labour administration.

Councillor Ian Clarkson has been selected Provost of North Ayrshire at the Council’s first meeting since the local government elections earlier this month.

Provost Clarkson was elected unanimously, meaning he will continue in the role he first took up last August.

He said: “I am deeply honoured to once again be elected Provost of North Ayrshire.

“It’s a role I have grown to love over the past few months and I’m looking forward to getting out and about to meet people across the whole of North Ayrshire.

“I pledge that I will work hard to represent everyone in North Ayrshire over the coming months and years.”

After Councillor Clarkson was elected Provost, a vote was held to determine the Council Leader and Depute Leader. A proposal to install Councillors Cullinane and Bell, of Scottish Labour, to the posts received 16 votes against a proposal to elect Councillors Marie Burns and Alan Hill, of the Scottish National Party, which received 11 votes.

Council Leader Joe Cullinane said: “It has been an immense privilege to serve the people of North Ayrshire as Council Leader for the past nine months.

“We have made a huge amount of progress in a short space of time and I am committed to continuing that work to serve the interests of everyone in North Ayrshire.”

At the meeting, a number of other major appointments were confirmed:

Councillor Joe Cullinane – Cabinet Member for Finance & Corporate Support

Councillor John Bell – Cabinet Member for Education & Youth Employment

Councillor Alex Gallagher – Cabinet Member for Economy

Councillor Louise McPhater – Cabinet Member for Communities

Councillor Jim Montgomerie – Cabinet Member for Place

Councillor Robert Foster – Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care

Representation on the Council is: Scottish Labour Party 11, Scottish National Party 11, Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party 7 and Independent 4.

Council leader Joe Cullinane later hit back at claims Labour took power thanks to Conservative votes. 

He said: “Labour were offered coalition talks with the SNP and Tory Group but we rejected both. The Tories are wedded to austerity whilst the SNP Group, who resigned nine months ago, told us to ‘manage the cuts’ when we were fighting against cuts to the council’s budget earlier this year.”