Retired teacher Rebecca Machin has been selected as the candidate for the East Sutherland and Edderton Highland Council by election taking place on 25 June following the resignation of long serving councillor Jim McGilvray.
Machin moved to Dornoch Academy in 2007 from Kinlochbervie High School before later moving north to Wick and then on to Kinlochleven High School where she served respectively as Deputy Head Teacher and Head Teacher.
Machin said:
“I am honoured to represent the SNP at this by-election, but I must say, I’m so sad that the vacancy has arisen.
“I first met Jim when I started teaching at Dornoch.
“As Highland Councillor, Jim always attended the Parent Council meetings and was always a staunch supporter of the school.
“I left five years later, but it was lovely to be invited back to Chair a Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) final alongside Jim, a constant and unchanging presence for his community.
“Jim demonstrated what a diligent councillor looked like.
“He was also a guide and source of historical context and advice when, in 2023, I became a Community Councillor in Edderton.
“Again, always present, always providing sound advice and grounded guidance and always willing to listen and represent our views in Inverness.
“I struck lucky a third time, when I became chair of the ECSCAB and Jim was on the board: a wealth of local knowledge, always putting his community front and centre.
“In truth, if I was going to stand for the Highland Council, I had hoped that it would be alongside Jim in the hope that I could learn directly from someone who has modestly and unshowily modelled what it takes to be a public servant, but it was sadly not to be.
“If I were to be successful, I do hope that Jim won’t mind my reaching out to him for advice and guidance as I always have in the past.
“It is true that, perhaps, mine and Jim’s main area of disagreement has been on the role of party politics in local government but, for me, it would feel odd to pretend that I didn’t have party affiliations and so I am choosing to run under the banner of the SNP.
“I look forward to making sure that critical issues, like the roll out of the SNP’s government child care offering, the need to support pupils, staff and teachers to provide the best education possible and supporting our social care hubs to thrive will allow me to demonstrate compassion and innovation for the people of East Sutherland and Edderton from cradle to grave.
“Just as Councillor McGilvray has always done.”
The by election will take place on 25 June as voters across East Sutherland and Edderton choose a successor to one of the area’s longest serving local representatives.
