 | 'Cosla has become an apologist organisation for the Labour-dominated Scottish Executive. We've seen the contempt the executive has for local government with the trunk road privatisation and continued under-funding of health and care-related services. Rather than stand up for local government, Cosla has kowtowed.' Councillor David Anderson, SNP group leader on Falkirk Council, 14 th February 2001. |  |
The SNP held their Forfar Central ward on Angus council with a majority of 166 (10.2 %) over the Tories, down from 213 (13.1 %) in 1999.
The town of Forfar is one of the largest towns in Angus Council and is in the parliamentary constituency of North Tayside, which was won from the Tories by John Swinney, in 1997. John Swinney also became MSP for North Tayside in 1999 and leader of the SNP in 2000.
Angus District Council was under Tory control until 1984 when it was won by the Scottish National Party. The current MP/MSP for Angus, Andrew Welsh, had won the Westminster parliamentary seat of Angus South from the Tories in October 1974 but he was defeated in 1979. In 1983 he failed to win the new seat of Angus East but was elected as an Angus Councillor in the 1984 District Council elections. Andrew Welsh became the Provost of Angus and in 1987 he won Angus South from the Tories, going on to hold the successor seat of Angus in 1997 and become MSP for Angus in 1999.
Since 1984 Angus has remained in SNP with Andrew Welsh's wife, Sheena becoming the Provost. The long term SNP hold on this council is due to their highly efficient administration with the council at the top of the Council League Table in 1998, 1999 and 2000, only being displaced in 2001 by Clackmannan where the SNP became the minority administration in 1999 and took overall control in 2000.
The closest the SNP came to losing Angus was in 1992. In the parliamentary election, Andrew Welsh's majority in Angus was cut back to just 473 votes, but this increased to 10,189 in 1997 and 8,901 in 1999. Meanwhile, although Tory Bill Walker took 46.7 % of the vote in Tayside North in 1992 compared to 37.5 % for John Swinney, in 1997, John Swinney won the seat in 1992 with 44.9 % of the vote compared to 35.7 % for Bill Walker.
Following the Tories unexpectedly good showing in the 1992 Westminster elections they also did well in the District Council elections. Even so, the SNP held on to Angus Council with a majority of one. They won 11 wards with 44.20 % of the vote compared to 7 wards and 30.07 for the Tories, 2 wards and 8.30 % for Independents and 1 ward and 9.44 % for the Lib Dems. The SNP lost two wards, Lunan to the Tories and Montrose South to an Independent and picked up Dunnichen from the Lib Dems.
Following local government reorganisation, the new Angus Unitary Council was composed of the old Angus District Council plus two wards from Dundee and two new wards created from existing Angus and Dundee Wards. In the 1995 elections the SNP had a landslide victory in Angus, increasing their majority from just one to 16. The SNP increased their vote by 8.9 % to 53.1 %, winning 21 of the 26 wards on the new council. The Tory vote fell by 14.7 % to 15.4 % and they won just two wards, with the Lib Dems winning two wards with 6.8 % and Independents one ward with 5.3 %.
In 1999, the number of wards in Angus was increased by three to 29. The SNP won 21 wards with 46.6 % of the vote with Independents winning 3 wards with 8.3 %, the Tories two with 18.0 %, the Lib Dems two with 8.9 % and Labour one with 18.3 %.
The Angus District Council seat of Forfar Central & Lemno was a Tory ward. In 1992 it was held for the Conservatives by A.E. Thomson with 1,088 votes (57.8 %) giving him a 422 majority (22.4 %) over the SNP's E.I. Martin with 666 votes (35.4 %) while Labour's G.N. MacDonald took 128 votes 6.8 %).
Following local government reorganisation, Forfar was split into 'North West', 'North East' and 'South East' all of which were won by the SNP in 1995. In 1999, following further boundary changes, a new ward of Forfar Central was recreated which was won by the SNP's Stephen Leslie with 46.7 % of the vote and a 13.1 % majority over the Tories.
The SNP held Forfar Central with 34.4 % of the vote, down 12.3 % on 1999 while the Tories took 24.2 %, down 9.4 %. The Lib Dems, standing for the first time, took 23.6 % and were just 10 votes behind the Tories while Labour came fourth with 17.9 , 1.8 % down on 1999.
Following the SNP hold of Forfar Central, the political composition of Angus council remains unchanged at 21 SNP, two Brechin Independents, two Tories, two Lib Dems, one Labour and one Independent.
I am grateful to Kevin Lang for information on the by-election and to David Freeland for sending the result.
| 7 th June 2001 | 6 th May 1999 | ||||||
 |
561 | 34.4 % | Stephen Leslie | |
757 | 46.7 % | |
 |
395 | 24.2 % | Alastair Cochrane-Dyet | |
544 | 33.6 % | |
 |
385 | 23.6 % | Gordon Walker |  |
319 | 19.7 % | |
|
292 | 17.9 % | |||||
| SNP hold | SNP maj. | 166 | 10.2 % | SNP win | SNP maj. | 213 | 13.1 % |
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