RESURGENT Tories picked up six new seats in the 2017 North Ayrshire Council elections to leave them on seven – just four behind Labour and the SNP.

Now Conservative group leader, Tom Marshall, who has been involved in local government since the late 1980s, is looking for another strong performance.

Todd Ferguson and Marshall are standing for the party in the North Coast ward, Ted Nevill and Stewart Ferguson will contest Garnock Valley, and Timothy Billings stands in the new seat of Arran.

Newcomer Cameron Inglis will battle it out in Saltcoats and Stevenston, and John Glover contests Kilwinning.

Scott Gallacher is the Tory hopeful in Irvine West, while Angela Stephen is the candidate in Irvine East.

Another new face, Matthew McLean, a UKIP candidate five years ago, is the party’s candidate in Irvine South.

READ MORE: 'Progress is there to see; why change now?': Council chief's message ahead of May polls

And Cllr Marshall says he is hopeful his party can at the very least consolidate their position when voters go to the polls on May 5.

He said: “The opinion polls are never terribly accurate and there are a lot of secret Conservatives who won’t tell people which way they’re voting for for a whole load of reasons.

“We are happy with our candidates. In the 2012 election we only took one seat, and seven in the last.

“If we get seven or better that’s good. There are big wards in the election – the one I’m in has 12.”

One of the main messages from the campaign is the Tories oppose independence.

Cllr Marshall added: “We are telling people not to vote SNP or they are encouraging Indyref 2. In my area there’s an older population and we just don’t want it.

“Also over the last 10 years the council’s budget from the Scottish Government has been pared back by £100m and councils across Scotland are suffering from a lack of funds and we will be raising that.

“We don’t particularly support the idea of community wealth building because we think the Labour administration has failed to encourage big companies to come to the area and create hundreds of jobs.

“We’ve been highly critical of the Ardrossan ferry terminal because no one knows how much they are spending on it but it’s at least £25 million.

“We feel the ferry situation has been badly handled by the SNP but Councillor Billings is standing in Arran and he will put our views across.”

READ MORE: North Ayrshire Council elections: How to vote next week