Local government in Scotland

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The local government of Scotland is organised into 32 unitary authorities^[1] covering the mainland and islands of Scotland. Each local authority is governed by a council consisting of elected councillors, who are elected every four years by registered voters in each of the council areas.

Scottish councils co-operate through and are represented collectively by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).

1 History
2 Governance and administration
3 Election results, 2003
- 3.1 Council control
4 Community councils
5 See also

[edit] History

Main article: History of local government in the United Kingdom

This section is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

Between 1890 and 1975 local government in Scotland was organised with county councils (including four counties of cities) and various lower-level units. Between 1890 and 1929, there were parish councils and town councils, but with the passing of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929, the functions of parish councils were passed to larger district councils and a distinction was made between large burghs (i.e. those with a population of 20,000 or more) and small burghs. This system was further refined by the passing of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947.

In 1975, legislation passed by the Conservative government of Edward Heath (1970-1974) introduced a system of two-tier local government in Scotland (see Regions of Scotland), divided between large Regional Councils and smaller District Councils. The only exceptions to this were the three Island Councils, Western Isles, Shetland and Orkney which had the combined powers of Regions and Districts. The Conservative government of John Major (1990-1997) decided to abolish this system and merge their powers into new unitary authorities. The new councils vary widely in size — some are the same as counties, such as Clackmannanshire, some are the same as former districts, such as Inverclyde and some are the same as the former regions, such as Highland. The changes took effect in 1996 with shadow councillors elected in 1995 to oversee the smooth transition of control.

[edit] Governance and administration

The power invested in these authorities is administered by elected councillors. There are currently around 1,200 in total, each paid a part-time salary for the undertaking of their duties. Each authority elects a Provost or Convenor to chair meetings of the authority's council and act as a figurehead for the area. The office of Provost or Convenor is roughly equivalent to that of a Mayor, though they are elected for the duration of a council (4 years).

The four main cities of Scotland, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee have a Lord Provost rather than a Provost, who have the additional duty of being Lord Lieutenant for their respective city.

The councillors are elected every four years.

Each council has a chief executive who is similar in function to a city manager, though certain councillors have executive authority and there is no clear division of powers. The council is both executive, deliberative and legislative in nature.

There are in total 32 unitary authorities, the largest being the City of Glasgow with more than 600,000 inhabitants, the smallest, Orkney, with fewer than 20,000 people living there.

[edit] Election results, 2003

[discuss] – [edit]
**Summary of the 1 May 2003 Scottish council election results**
Parties		Votes	Votes %	+/-	Wards	Net Gain/Loss
	Labour	611,843	32.6	-3.7%	509	-42
	Scottish National Party	451,660	24.1	-4.6%	181	-23
	Conservative and Unionist	282,895	15.1	+1.6%	122	+14
	Liberal Democrats	272,057	14.5	+1.9%	175	+18
	Independent	189,749	10.1	+3.0%	230	+39
	other	67,533	3.6	+2.0%	4	-6
Total		1,875,737			1222

[edit] Council control

The 32 unitary authorities are controlled as follows. The figures incorporate the results from the 2003 local government election, plus gains and losses from subsequent local by-elections, and party defections.

Council area	Political control	Labour Party (Lab)	Scottish National Party (SNP)	Liberal Democrats (LD)	Conservative and Unionist Party (Con)	others (oth)
City of Aberdeen	LD-Con	14	6	20	3	0
Aberdeenshire	LD-oth	0	18	28	11	11
Angus	SNP	1	17	3	2	6
Argyll and Bute	oth	0	3	8	3	22
Clackmannanshire	Lab	10	7	0	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	Lab (minority)	15	5	5	11	11
City of Dundee	Lab-LD (minority)	10	11	2	5	1
East Ayrshire	Lab	23	8	0	1	0
East Dunbartonshire	LD	9	0	12	3	0
East Lothian	Lab	17	1	1	4	0
East Renfrewshire	Lab-LD	8	0	3	7	2
City of Edinburgh	Lab	30	1	14	13	0
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)	oth	4	3	0	0	24
Falkirk	SNP-oth	12	11	0	2	7
Fife	Lab (minority)	35	13	23	2	5
City of Glasgow	Lab	69	4	3	1	2
Highland	oth	8	6	13	0	53
Inverclyde	LD	6	0	13	0	1
Midlothian	Lab	14	1	3	0	0
Moray	oth	5	3	1	1	16
North Ayrshire	Lab	20	3	0	5	2
North Lanarkshire	Lab	54	13	0	0	3
Orkney	oth	0	0	0	0	21
Perth and Kinross	SNP-LD-oth	5	15	9	10	2
Renfrewshire	Lab	21	14	3	1	0
Scottish Borders	oth-Con	0	2	8	11	13
Shetland	oth	0	0	5	0	17
South Ayrshire	Con (control dependent on casting vote of the Provost)	14	0	0	15	1
South Lanarkshire	Lab	49	9	2	4	3
Stirling	Lab	11	1	0	10	0
West Dunbartonshire	Lab	16	3	0	0	3
West Lothian	Lab	18	11	0	1	2
TOTAL	-	495 (15 councils, plus 2 shared control)	190 (1 council, plus 2 shared control)	179 (2 councils, plus 5 shared control)	126 (1 council, plus 2 shared control)	232(6 councils, plus 4 shared control)

[edit] Community councils

Community councils represent the interests of local people. Local authorities have a statutory duty to consult Community Councils on planning, development and other issues directly affecting that local community. However, the Community Council has no direct say in the delivery of services. In many areas they do not function at all, but some work very effectively at improving their local area.

Elections for Community Councils are determined by the Local Authority but the law does state that candidates cannot stand on a party-political ticket.