Veteran Mull councillor says her farewells

Veteran independent councillor Mary-Jean Devon is standing down at this May’s local election.

The Mull councillor gave her goodbyes, thanks and regrets at a recent meeting of Oban, Lorn and the Isles Area Committee.

Amid the warm words and memories of battles won and lost, Mary-Jean Devon revealed she had decided to leave following hurtful comments on social media over the last year.

Councillor Devon, Oban South and the Isles, said: ‘I have been a councillor for 15 years and during that time I have had three policy leads.

‘I think the highlight has been the Corporate Parenting Board. The Scottish Government brought out the Children and Young People Act in 2014 and I think it was one of the best things any government could do.

‘Within weeks, we had 55 young people getting driving lessons, we got them passes into all of Argyll and Bute’s leisure centres, we got them into computers. ‘Unfortunately, fi nancially that has not happened in the last couple of years, but it was a great board and it was just such a great thing the government did, protecting even more of our young people. ‘I’ve enjoyed my time as a councillor, but the last year I found it becomes very personal with some people. You know, they just think they can say what they like, when they like and they put it up on Facebook, and it does, it hurts. I think more than anything it hurts your family and my family were getting quite upset about things, so time to go. ‘But I’ve enjoyed it, and I know we are leaving our young people in a much better place than they were in. We might not be very good at many things, but we are good at our care. ‘I’ll miss it. There’ll be no early mornings - no four o’clock or half four getting up and standing in the rain waiting on the bus to take me to the ferry. I will miss that as well, believe it or not. But it’s been great working with you all and no doubt I’ll see you about Oban at some point.’