 | 'Labour will pay a heavy price for the refusal of their entire ministerial team to back the bill to abolish warrant sales and poindings.' Alex Salmond MP MSP, 27 th April 2000. |  |
| 'Labour will pay a heavy price for the refusal of their entire ministerial team to back the bill to abolish warrant sales and poindings.' Alex Salmond MP MSP, 27 th April 2000. | |
Clackmannanshire is a tiny local authority nestling in the Ochil hills. Not only is the authority small - in no less than eight of the 18 wards, the sitting councillor has a majority of less than 100 in 1999. Until 1999 Clackmannanshire was represented by just 12 councillors, and Labour had run the council here for many a year. It was the scene of big gains for the Scottish National Party in May 1999 when they overtook Labour as the largest party.
Back in 1984, the SNP performance in the district council elections was patchy. They won Angus District from the Tories and increased their representation in Falkirk, Dundee and Renfrew, but they fell back in Kirkcaldy, West Lothian and Clackmannanshire.
In 1988, Labour had firm control of Clackmannanshire District Council with 10 wards compared to one each for the SNP the Tories. In 1992, the SNP becan to fight back and won the Tillicoultry and Alva wards from Labour.
In 1995, the elections for the new Clackmannanshire Council produced no change, with 8 wards for Labour, 3 for the SNP and one for the Tories. Despite three by-elections in a period of three months in 1996, in the Clackmannan, Alva and Dollar wards, there was no change with Labour, the SNP and the Tories all holding on to their seats, with majorities of 17, four and 145 respectively.
There were major boundary changes for the 1999 election in Clackmannanshire with the number of wards being increased from 12 to 18. While Labour and the Tories won the same number of wards as before - 8 and one respectively - the SNP tripled their representation on the council from three wards to nine, becomming the largest party. They now form the administration in Clackmannanshire and should they be able to win Delph & Cambus from Labour they will have an overall majority.
In 1992, Alexander Scobie held Delph for Labour with a majority of 286 over the SNP's H. Morrison, with the Tories in third place. There was a straight fight between Labour and the SNP in the 1995 Unitary Council elections and Alexander Scobie obtained a majority of 472 over the SNP's Linda Morrison.
In 1999, Labour's majority in the new Delph & Cambus ward was slashed to just 23, with Labour's Dorothy Cook taking 563 votes compared to 540 for Christine Murphy of the Scottish National Party.
Just under twelve months later, Christine Murphy became the councillor for Delph & Cambus at the second attempt when she overturned the 23 Labour majority and turned it into a 173 vote majority for the SNP with a swing from Labour to SNP of 15.15 %. The election of Cllr Murphy gives the SNP an overall majority on the council which they have controlled as a minority administration since last May.
The turnout was 46.3 %, down from 62.1 % last May.
Following the SNP by-election victory here, the political composition of the council is 10 Scottish National Party, 7 Labour and one Conservative.
In Thursday night's council by-election in Clackmannanshire, the SNP's Tina Murphy beat Labour's Helen Forrest to win the Delph & Cambus Ward by a margin of 173 votes.
Meanwhile, Labour held the Firrhill Ward of Edinburgh City Council. Andrew Scobie defeated the SNP's Robert Shirley by 788 votes to 527.
SNP leader Mr Alex Salmond MSP said:
'This is an excellent result for the SNP, giving us overall control of Clackmannanshire Council.
'The SNP won the seat from Labour with a swing of over 10 per cent. This is a severe blow to Labour, and a great achievement for the SNP - giving us outright control of a second local authority.'
Swing from Labour to the SNP: 10.5%
Note : The composition of Clackmannanshire Council is now SNP 10, Labour 7, Tory 1 - giving the SNP overall control, instead of the previous casting vote situation.
SNP leader Alex Salmond took the opportunity at last month's Perth Conference to congratulate the candidates Tina Murphy and Robert Shirley, in two local council elections where they generated substantial swings against Labour.
Councillor Murphy overturned Labour's majority in the Delph & Cambus ward and so won outright control of Clackmannanshire Council, the SNP now having 10 seats, Labour 7 and Tories 1.
Last time the SNP came within 23 votes of victory and this time redoubled thier efforts to win by a majority of 173. "All through the campaign," Tina told us, "we used our caravan as HQ and towed it up to the car park at the polling station ... Labour were not amused. For the future it will be employed as the Lucky Caravan!"
Alex Salmond told the SI: "This is a very significant win for the SNP. Delph & Cambus has never been held by us in the entire history of the seat, and we have never held outright control of Clackmannanshire. And in Firrhill we slashed the Labour majority too.
| 27 th April 2000 | 6 th May 1999 | ||||||
| Christine Murphy |  |
484 | 52.8 % | Dorothy Cook |  |
563 | 45.2 % |
| Helen Forrest | |
311 | 33.9 % | Christine Murphy | |
540 | 43.3 % |
| Derek McMenemy |  |
82 | 8.9 % | Derek McMenemy | |
143 | 11.5 % |
| Charles Bell |  |
40 | 4.4 % | ||||
| SNP gain from Lab | SNP maj. | 173 | 18.9 % | Lab win | Lab maj. | 23 | 1.8 % |
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