Party Composition in Unitary Councils

'Two million people in 17 local authority areas woke up yesterday morning to find their council was either under 'Independent' or 'no overall control'.'
Nic Outterside in the Sunday Herald, 9 th May 1999.

Political Composition of Scottish Unitary Councils

The following table lists the political composition of the Scottish Unitary Councils at the date of the elections on 6 th May 1999. The changes due to by-elections and defections (where known) since those elections are also shown. For comparison, the composition at the previous elections in April 1995 (for the 29 mainland councils) and May 1994 (for the 3 island councils) is also given. Note that there were major boundary changes for the 1999 elections with the number of wards in some cases being either drastically reduced (eg Scottish Borders) or increased (eg Aberdeenshire).

Authority	Date	Administration	Labour	SNP	Con	Lib Dem	Ind	Others
Authority	Date	Administration
Aberdeen	May 1999	Lab	22	3	6	12	0	0
Aberdeen	April 95	Lab	30	1	9	10	0	0

Aberdeenshire	May 1999	Lib Dem/ Ind	0	23	7	28	10	0
Aberdeenshire	April 95	Lib Dem/ Ind	0	15	4	15	13	0

Angus	May 1999	SNP	1	21	2	2	1	2^a
	April 95	SNP	0	21	2	2	1	0
	^a Brechin Independent Group

Argyll & Bute	Now	Ind/Lib Dem/SNP	0	4	3	6	22	0
	May 99	Ind/Lib Dem/SNP	1	5	4	6	20	0
	April 95	Ind	2	4	3	3	21	0
	In a by-election on 21 st December 2000, an Independent won the Kirn & Hunter's Quay ward from the Scottish National Party. In a by-election on 15 th March 2001, an Independent won the Milton ward from Labour.

East Ayrshire	May 1999	Lab	17	14	1	0	0	0
East Ayrshire	April 95	Lab	22	8	0	0	0	0

North Ayrshire	May 99	Lab	25	2	2	0	1	0
North Ayrshire	April 95	Lab	27	1	1	0	1	0

South Ayrshire	Now	NOC	14	0	13	0	3	0
	May 99	Lab	17	0	13	0	0	0
	April 95	Lab	21	0	4	0	0	0
	In the summer of 1999 the ex-Provost and Labour councillor Robert Campbell (Ayr Central) was forced out of the Labour group and now sits as an independent. In January 2001, Labour Brenda Campbell (no relation), Labour councillor for Ayr Craigie quit the Labour group and now sits as an independent. In March 2001 Labour Douglas Campbell (husband of Brenda) Labour councillor for Ayr Lochside quit the Labour group and now sits as an independent. (Douglas Campbell is the election agent for Deputy Scottish Secretary, George Foulkes). Labour thus lost overall control of South Ayrshire council.

Clackmannanshire	Now	SNP	7	10	1	0	0	0
	May 99	Minority SNP	8	9	1	0	0	0
	April 95	Lab	8	3	1	0	0	0
	In a by-election on 27 th April 2000, the Scottish National Party won the Delph & Cambus ward from Labour. This gave the SNP overall contol of Clackmannanshire Council.

Dumfries & Galloway	May 99	Ind/Lab/Lib Dem/SNP	13	5	8	6	14	1^a
	April 95	Ind/ Lib Dem	21	9	2	10	28	0
	^a Independent Labour

East Dunbartonshire	May 99	Lib Dem/Con^a	11	0	3	10	0	0
	April 95	Lab	15	0	2	9	0	0
	^aOn the 22 nd October 1999, the Labour party was ousted from office by a Lib Dem/Conservative coalition. On the 5 th March 2000, the Sunday Herald cited this council as minority Lib Dem

West Dunbartonshire (previously Dumbarton & Clydebank)	Now	Lab	14	7	0	0	0	1^a
	May 99	Lab	14	7	0	0	1	0
	April 95	Lab	14	7	0	0	1	0
	^aScottish Socialist party Several months after the 1999 election, Independent Cllr Jim Bollan of Renton & Alexandria South joined the Scottish Socialist Party

Dundee	Now	Minority Lab	13	11	4	0	0	1^a
	May 99	Minority Lab	14	10	4	0	0	1^a
	April 95	Lab	28	3	4	0	0	1^a
	^a Independent Labour In a by-election on 30 th September 2000, the Scottish National Party won the Logie ward from Labour.

Edinburgh	May 99	Lab	31	1	13	13	0	0
	April 95	Lab	34	0	14	10	0	0
	The Liberal Democrats are the official opposition in Edinburgh as Cllr Brian Meek was absent for the vote.

Falkirk	Now	SNP / Independent / Non- aligned Alliance	14	10	2	0	5	1^a
	May 99	Minority Lab	15	9	2	0	5	1^a
	April 95	Lab	23	8	2	0	3	0
	^a Independent Labour In a by-election on 18 th January 2001, the Scottish National Party won the Kinneil & Whitecross ward from Labour.

Fife	Now	Lab	42	10	2	21	1	2^b
	May 99	Lab	43	9	1	21	2	2^b
	April 95	Lab	54	9	0	25	3	1^a
	^a Communist ^b Democratic Left, Communist In a by-election on 26 th August 1999, the Conservatives gained Elie, St Monans & Pittenweem from an Independent In a by-election on 19 th October 2000, the Scottish National Party won South Parks & Macedonia from Labour

Glasgow	May 99	Lab	74	2	1	1	0	1 ^a
	April 95	Lab	77	1	3	1	0	1 ^a
	^a Scottish Socialist Party (previously Scottish Socialist Alliance which included Scottish Militant Labour)

Highland	Now	Ind	11	8	0	10	47	4^b
	May 99	Ind	10	8	0	12	46	4^b
	April 95	Ind	6	9	1	4	49	3^a
	^a2 Liberal and 1 Scottish Labour ^b1 Independent Liberal, 1 Independent Scottish Nationalist, 1 'Merkincher' and 1 'Representative of the People' In a by-election on the 8 th of June 2000, Labour won the Crown ward from the Liberal Democrats In a by-election on the 31 st of August 2000, an Independent won the Badenoch West ward from the Liberal Democrats

Inverclyde	Now	NOC	10	0	1	9	0	0
	May 99	Lab	11	0	1	8	0	0
	April 95	Lab	14	0	1	5	0	0
	In a by-election on the 21 st September 2000, the Liberal Democrats won Ward 13 from Labour. Labour lost overall control of the council.

North Lanarkshire	May 99	Lab	56	12	0	0	2	0
North Lanarkshire	April 95	Lab	60	7	0	0	2	0

South Lanarkshire	Now	Lab	53	11	2	1	0	0
	May 99	Lab	54	10	2	1	0	0
	April 95	Lab	62	8	2	2	0	0
	On the 15 th February 2001, the Scottish National Party won the Stonehouse ward from Labour

East Lothian	Now	Lab	16	2	5	0	0	0
	May 99	Lab	17	1	5	0	0	0
	April 95	Lab	15	0	3	0	0	0
	In a by-election on 22 nd June 2000, the Scottish National Party won the Musselburgh East ward from Labour.

Midlothian	May 99	Lab	17	0	0	1	0	0
Midlothian	April 95	Lab	13	2	0	0	0	0

West Lothian	May 99	Lab	20	11	1	0	0	0
West Lothian	April 95	Lab	15	11	1	0	0	0

Moray	May 99	Ind/Lab	6	2	1	2	13	2^a
	April 95	SNP	3	13	0	0	2	0
	^aScottish Independents

Orkney	May 99	Ind	0	0	0	0	21	0
	May 94	Ind	0	0	0	0	26	1^a
	^a Open Government In 1995, there were no candidates for ward 1 - Kirkwall Pickaquoy

Perthshire & Kinross	Now	Con/Lab/Lib Dem/Ind	6	15	11	7	2	0
	May 99	Con/Lab/Lib Dem/Ind	6	16	11	6	2	0
	April 95	SNP	6	18	2	5	1	0
	On the 7 th of June 2001 the Liberal Democrats won the Kinross Town ward from the Scottish National Party.

East Renfrewshire	May 99	Minority Lab	9	0	8	2	0	1^a
	April 95	Lab/ Lib Dem	8	0	9	2	0	1^a
	^a Residents' Association

Renfrewshire	May 99	Lab	21	15	1	3	0	0
Renfrewshire	April 95	Lab	22	13	2	3	0	0

Scottish Borders	May 99	Ind/Lib Dem	1	4	1	14	14	0
Scottish Borders	April 95	Ind/Lib Dem/SNP/Lab	2	8	3	15	30	0

Shetland	May 99	Ind/Lib Dem	0	0	0	8	13	1^b
	May 94	Ind	1	0	0	2	16	7^a
	^a 6 Shetland Movement, 1 Independent Labour ^b Independent Liberal Democrat

Stirling	Now	Minority Lab	11	1	10	0	0	0
	May 99	Minority Lab	11	2	9	0	0	0
	April 95	Lab	13	2	7	0	0	0
	In a by-election on 13 th April 2000, the Conservatives won Highland ward from the Scottish National Party.

Western Isles	Now	Ind	5	3	0	0	23	0
	May 99	Ind	6	3	0	0	22	0
	May 94	Ind	5	0	0	0	25	0
	On the 13 th of April 2000, an Independent won Manor Park ward from Labour

Scottish Local Authorities	Now		540	207	110	156	192	17
	By-elections since May 99		+ 1, - 9	+ 6, - 3	+ 2	+ 2, - 2	+ 4, - 1	-
	Defections/expulsions since May 99		- 3	-	-	-	- 1, + 3	+ 1
	May 99		551	204	108	156	187	16
	Change since 94/95		- 70	+ 23	+ 26	+ 33	- 34	-
	Apr 95/ May 94		621	181	82	123	222	15

According to my calculations, there 1245 wards in 1994/95 (not 1243 as according to some authorities). There were 84 wards in the 3 Island authorities, which were contested with the last Regional Council elections on 5 th May 1994. The 29 new unitary mainland councils comprised 1161 which were contested on 6 th April 1995. Note that there were no elections in four of the wards in the 1994/95 elections. In 1995, the elections were delayed in Stevenston North (North Ayrshire), and Forth (South Lanarkshire) due to the death of a candidate. In 1994, there were no candidates for Laxdale (Western Isles) and Kirkwall Pickaquay (Orkney). The vacancy in Laxdale was filled later that year but, to the best of my knowledge, that in Kirkwall was not. In the table above there are a total of 1244 councillors listed for 1994/95 due to the apparent vacancy in Kirkwall.

There were further major boundary changes for the 1999 local elections and the number of wards was reduced to 1222.

For the political composition of English and Welsh local authorities see the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors' web site.

I am grateful to Marco Biagi, Garry Clark, David Freeland and John Stewart for providing information for these tables. Special thanks go to James Aitken for his invaluable assistance in compiling and checking these data.

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