Orkney Islands Council has named Heather Woodbridge as Scotland's youngest local authority leader.
The 29-year-old also becomes the first woman to lead the island council, almost 50 years after the first council was elected.
Ms Woodbridge grew up in the community of North Ronaldsay, attended the island primary school and then Kirkwall Grammar School.
She then studied Ecology at the University of Stirling before moving home to Orkney after she completed her studies.
READ MORE: Council ridicules claim Glasgow is second most unsafe city in Europe
In October 2020, the then 26-year-old was elected as the youngest councillor in the history of Orkney Islands Council following a by-election which was called following the passing of her father, Councillor Kevin Woodbridge.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Orkney Council confirmed: "Councillor Heather Woodbridge has been elected as Political Leader at #Orkney Islands Council, with Sandy Cowie to become Deputy Leader.
"Heather was elected unopposed after Councillor Lindsay Hall withdrew his candidacy.
"She was nominated by Councillor Leslie Manson, with Councillor Duncan Tullock seconding the nomination."
Councillor Heather Woodbridge has been elected as Political Leader at #Orkney Islands Council, with Sandy Cowie to become Deputy Leader pic.twitter.com/gaIkAqVKUO
— Orkney Islands Council (@OrkneyCouncil) February 20, 2024
Responding to news of Ms Woodbridge's appointment as leader of Orkney Islands Council, Cosla President, Councillor Shona Morrison, said: “I would like to extend my congratulations to Heather Woodbridge on becoming the new Leader of Orkney Islands Council (OIC). Not only is she one of the youngest Council Leaders in Scotland, she is the first female OIC Leader, almost 50 years after the first OIC was elected.
“Heather sits on Cosla’s Barriers to Elected Office Group where she is a valued member and contributes significantly on issues like Councillors safety and has views on being a young woman in a rural ward. It is good to see her breaking down the barriers further and I wish her well in her new role and look forward to working with her starting at Cosla Leaders meeting on Friday.”
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