 | 'Liberal Democrat controlled Aberdeenshire was one of three authorities which had fallen foul of Scottish Executive guidelines and was promptly told by Ministers to come into line. Consequently, the council had to find savings of £13 m and force 40 compulsory redundancies, along with 100 voluntary severances from its workforce.' John MacCalman and Brain Donnelly in the Herald, 10 th March 2000. |  |
In the original 'regionalisation' plan, 'the kingdom of Fife' was to be split between Lothians and Tayside. However, Fife refused to be axed and a new Fife Region was created with three Districts Councils - Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, and North East Fife.
In the 1992 District Council elections, the Lib Dems ran riot in the former Tory stronghold of North East Fife, winning 13 of the 18 seats. However, they lost out in the most recent reorganisation when Lib Dem-run North East Fife was grouped with Labour fiefs of Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy to form a new Fife Unitary Council. Despite the fact that the Lib Dems won 17 of the 18 wards in the old North East Fife area (St Monans was held by Independent James Braid), the new Fife authority was won easily by Labour in 1995. The final result was 54 Labour, 25 Liberal Democrats, 9 Scottish National Party, 3 Independents and 1 Communist.
After major boundary changes in 1999, Fife Council consisted of 43 Labour, 21 Liberal Democrats, 9 Scottish National Party, 2 Tories, 2 Independents, one Communist and one Democratic Left.
Tayport & Motray lies near the south end of the Tay Bridge, across from Dundee. It is a new ward which was created in 1999 when it was won by Liberal Democrat Heather Lyall with a 398 majority over the SNP's Gordon Reid while Labour and the Conservatives battled for third place.
The previous wards of Motray and of Tayport & Forgan were very different electorally. Motray was solid Liberal Democrat territory and they took over 65 % of the vote there in 1992 (against the Tories and Greens). Eleanor Gunstone won the new Unitary Council ward for the Lib Dems with over 68 % in 1995 (against the Tories, Labour and Scottish National Party). On the other hand, Tayport & Forgan was held by Independent Douglas Hamilton until the demise of North East Fife District Council. He was beaten by 72 votes in the Unitary Council elections of 1995 by Liberal Democrat Gordon Pay who took 33 % of the votes.
In the new Tayport and Motray ward, the Liberal Democrats had a majority of 18.3 % over the Scottish National Party. In the by-election they increased this to a majority of 36.4 % over the Conservatives. The Liberal Democrats can undoubtedly be very happy with this result, coming as it did during their Scottish conference, only a week after their humiliating fifth place with 2.5 % of the vote in the Ayr by-election. Their previous performances in local government by-elections where they held the ward has been extremely poor. In 1998, they suffered a swing of 10.2 % in Newburgh & District in Fife - which if repeated here would lose them the ward. In the same year they suffered massive swings again them in the Scottish Borders of 31.2 % in Mansfield and 47.3 % in Eyemouth Landward which they lost to an Independent, coming third.
The Lib Dems increased their vote by 15.7 % to poll almost as many votes in Tayport as as they did in the whole of Ayr the week before. The Tory percentage vote increased by 6.3 % allowing them to leap from fourth to second place and an independent came third with 12.8 %.
However, any interpretation of these results must be treated with great caution as the Scottish National Party, who came second with 24.5 % of the vote in May 1999, did not stand in the by-election. As the SNP contest almost every local government by-election, their failure to stand in this ward is surprising, especially after their good result in May 1999.
Although the SNP did not stand and 25 % of the votes up for grabs, none of them went to that unhappy party that is New Labour in Scotland. The Labour vote collapsed from 16.9 % to a miserable 6.6 %. This result comes just a week after the Ayr Scottish parliament by-election where Labour lost the seat to the Tories and were beaten to a poor third place behind the SNP. It appears to confirm that the Labour vote is evaporating everywhere - in safe Westminster Labour seats like Hamilton South, in Labour-Tory marginal Scottish Parliament seats like Ayr, and in local government wards where the Labour vote is already modest. While Donald Dewar still has three years before he must fight an election, results like these must be extremely worrying for the battalion of Labour MPs in the far-away parliament at Westminster which Scots no longer seem to care about.
The turnout was 37 %, down from 61.3 % in May 1999.
The by-election leaves the political composition of Fife Council unchanged at 43 Labour, 21 Liberal Democrats, 9 Scottish National Party, 2 Conservatives, 1 Independents, 1 Democratic Left and 1 Communist (The Tories won Elie, St Monans & Pittenweem from an Independent in August 1999).
I am grateful to Alan Jelfs for sending detailed results.
| 23 rd March 2000 | 6 th May 1999 | ||||||
| Margaret Taylor |  |
770 | 58.5 % | Heather Lyall | |
933 | 42.8 % |
| Jane Gillies |  |
291 | 22.1 % | Gordon Reid |  |
535 | 24.5 % |
| Donald Law | Ind | 168 | 12.8 % | Lindsey Kirkhill |  |
368 | 16.9 % |
| William Lawson | |
87 | 6.6 % | Jane Gillies | |
344 | 15.8 % |
| Lib hold | Lib maj. | 479 | 36.4 % | Lib win | Lib maj. | 398 | 18.3 % |
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