THE single candidate for the one-woman campaign the Rubbish Party has been elected to serve as a councillor in East Ayrshire.
Sally Cogley, who formed the party earlier this year to campaign on cleaning up the area, stood on a platform of promising locals better bin collections and was elected to the Irvine Valley ward along with the SNP’s Elena Whitham and Labour’s George Mair.
The party is dedicated to getting rid of “all types of rubbish”, including littering, dog fouling, pollution and fly-tipping.
Cogley, who lives in a castle in Galston, received 784 first-preference votes in the ward – more than both Mair and losing SNP candidate Margaret Young.
She was a community councillor for a decade and organised the annual Galston litter-pick.
During her campaign, Cogley ran with the slogan “Sally for a better valley”, and wrote in a campaign leaflet: “I am fed up with being expected to accommodate this RUBBISH so I have founded THE RUBBISH PARTY.”
Writing on Facebook after the results were declared, Cogley said: “Thank-you to all of those who turned out to vote, and for supporting me. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible in the next few weeks and thereafter.
“I am looking forward to the challenges ahead and to working with Elena Whitham and George Mair.”
Her website lays out clearly her one-woman campaign.
She wrote: “Do you despair at the amount of litter, fly-tipping, dog poo, cigarette ends and chewing gum that blight our roads, paths, parks, town centres and countryside? The Valley needs councillors who are not intimidated.
“Are you frustrated with your decaying town centre? A town centre in which historic buildings are crumbling. Local amenities such as the post office have been lost to structural problems with no contingency plan.”
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