Housing crisis and ferries ‘nightmare’ in focus in North Ayrshire elections

Council elections will be contest between SNP's national programme and Scottish Labour's local record

Claire O'Byrne has been living at the sharp end of Scotland's rural housing crisis. Owing to a chronic housing shortage on Arran, she had to declare herself homeless and leave the island, and for now gambles on its ailing ferry service for visits to the island with her five-year-old daughter, Alice.

Arran is an afterthought for everybody in terms of infrastructure and services," she said. It's a nightmare. I have known so many people who have had to make a decision to move away."