Some voters exercised their democratic right to vote in the latest council by-elections but others were deterred by snow and bad weather.
Low turnouts were recorded in all four local contests in different parts of the UK. Councils said they were unable to postpone the polls under the law.
The Liberal Democrats narrowly held a seat in the Exmouth Town ward of East Devon District Council, where the turnout was 12.4%.
The Conservatives comfortably held two seats at Basingstoke and Deane (Kempshott ward), where the turnout was 20.6%, and at Solihull (Blythe), where the turnout was 15.8%.
North of the border, the SNP held a seat at Clackmannanshire (Clackmannanshire North), where the turnout was the highest of the four by-elections at 24.7%.
Clackmannanshire Council said in a statement on its website ahead of polling: “Advice from the Electoral Commission is that there are no provisions in law for the adjournment or abandonment of a poll or to postpone it due to adverse weather. Voters are advised to take extra care.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here