The Conservative Group on The City of Edinburgh Council have appointed Councillor Cameron Rose, who represents Southside and Newington as their leader, to succeed Jeremy Balfour who is now to head up the Audit Committee.

Rose said:-“It is an honour to have been elected as the new leader by my fellow Conservative councillors. I thank those who have put their trust in me by electing me as a councillor, and I thank my colleagues who have now entrusted me with the role of leader of the main opposition on The City of Edinburgh Council.

“ Edinburgh is a wonderful city, but it is no secret that the city faces a number of challenges in the coming months and years. With its reputation tarnished by trams, by the statutory notices scandal and now with basic waste collection faltering badly, Edinburgh needs a different approach.

“The task before me and my colleagues is to play a full and constructive part in restoring confidence in Edinburgh and enabling residents to feel proud of their city once again.

“Our job as the main opposition on the council is to work constructively for the good of the city by scrutinising effectively the record of the Labour/SNP administration. Our job as Conservative councillors is to take every opportunity to promote efficiency, challenge bureaucracy, and ensure hard-pressed council tax payers get value for money.”

Councillor Cameron Rose lives in the ward he represents, Southside & Newington.  After 30 years as a policeman, with his five children grown up and away from home, he turned to local politics, successfully standing for the first time in the 2007 council elections.  Over the last five years he has built up experience in local government finance, pensions, planning, economic development, social care. He was education spokesman for Edinburgh Conservatives in the last administration.
He runs two blogs. One, Southside and Newington Newsblog, has published over 2,500 posts in the last 5 years, featuring information and news for local people.  The other, Climate Edinburgh, expresses his local perspective on what he sees as panicked (and expensive) public policies which are based on flawed assertions and assumptions playing on exaggerated fears.
The City of Edinburgh Council is run by a coalition of Labour and SNP councillors who have 38 seats between them out of the 58 available. The other Conservative councillors on the council are:-
Councillor Elaine Aitken  Colinton/Fairmilehead
Jeremy Balfour  Corstorphine/Murrayfield
Councillor Nick Cook Liberton/Gilmerton
Councillor Dominic Heslop Pentland Hills
Councillor Allan Jackson Forth
Councillor Mark McInnes Meadows/Morningside
Councillor Joanna Mowat City Centre
Councillor Lindsay Paterson Almond
Councillor Jason Rust Colinton/Fairmilehead
Councillor Iain Whyte Inverleith
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.