Ahead of the full board meeting on Wednesday [May 18]SNP group leader adviser Marie Burns said: “As the largest group in the North Ayrshire Council, the SNP will seek to form a minority administration at next week’s council meeting.

“This means that we will not seek a coalition with any other party. But we are aware of the election results that brought back members from across the political spectrum.

“To respect the electorate’s choice, we will always strive to work with progressive elected members of the entire council who share our priorities in North Ayrshire.

“We look forward to working with others to develop an inter-party agreement to tackle the cost of living, develop our renewable energy sector and support communities in implementing their own local priorities. We are convinced that this collegial and sustainable approach to local government is what the people of North Ayrshire expect from their elected representatives.

“If we succeed in our efforts to build an administration, we will continue to promote mutually respectful and constructive relationships inside and outside our Council to ensure the best results for all who live here, all who work here, and for all who visit our beautiful area ”.

This week, we reported that Conservative leader Tom Marshall was not “extremely optimistic” about the deal with Labor, but added that they “could be happy to be an effective” and “constructive” opposition.

Cllr Marshall said: “The SNP has made it clear that they will not make any deal with the Conservatives, so we are quite relaxed on this.

“Whether Labor wants to deal with us, we are calm about it. But with a lot of labor policies with which we could not agree, for example, with municipal socialism and the creation of the welfare of society.

“I am not very optimistic about the deal, as we are very divided, but we would like to make sure that they did not spend a lot of money on contrived schemes.

“We could be happy to be an effective opposition, because we would be a very constructive and effective opposition, because we have a lot of experienced people and young candidates who are learning the ropes.”