COUNCILLORS have voted to push through a ban on election posters in North Ayrshire.

Last Friday, a special meeting was held at Cunninghame House where councillors voted to maintain a ban on election posters across the region.

Back in April, Conservative Councillor Tom Marshall hijacked a motion to make some minor changes to the rules around political campaign posters with his own amendment to completely ban them from council property.

This was in relation to the then upcoming European elections and Scottish independence referendum.

And on Friday, Councillor Marshall put forward a motion in response to the council’s restriction of the ban to just those respective elections, much to the derision of his SNP counterparts.

The motion was backed by 14 councillors who attended the vote, with nine opposing it.

Councillor Marshall said: “We move that with immediate effect North Ayrshire Council agrees the following policy in relation to campaign materials and flyposting. The policy shall apply to all elections and referenda.

“No campaign materials should be affixed or displayed on any property under the council’s control. For the avoidance of doubt this includes any area adopted by the council as Roads Authority and any street furniture thereon, whether installed by the council or other bodies.

“Campaigning materials on telecommunications or power poles or apparatus or bus shelters situated on road verges or other areas owned or adopted by the council are not permitted.

“This resolution also includes parks and council buildings regardless of whether these are owned, leased or adopted by the council. However this prohibition does not apply to campaigning materials which council tenants choose to put up on the windows of homes which they lease from the council.” The SNP Councillors were unsurprisingly furious at the outcome.

Irvine SNP Councillor Marie Burns was left disgusted by the motion, saying: “The people of North Ayrshire can make up their own minds. They are more intelligent than that. Using the referendum as an example is just absolute nonsense.” Her party colleague Councillor Anthea Dickson argued that the ban would have a negative impact on voter engagement and highlighted the fact that the Electoral Commission, in its report on the 2012 local elections, had concerns about the 21 local authorities who had agreed to bans.

The Commission report stated: “We believe that the issue of use of street furniture for political party posters near the date of an election should be reviewed as it may encourage participation at elections.” Councillor Marshall was backed by Labour’s Kilwinning councillor Donald Reid in his argument that there was no limitation on the ban and his call to reinstate it immediately.