1974 Scottish local elections

Elections for the Scottish district councils were held on Tuesday 7 May 1974, for both the new regional and district councils, between the two United Kingdom general elections of February and October in that same year.

These were the first elections held to the 53 district councils established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The Labour Party did reasonably well and the Scottish National Party (SNP) did not. The councillors acted as "shadow" councils until May 1975, when the provisions of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 came into effect.^[1]

Results

National results

Summary of the 1974 Scottish local regional election results^[2]^[3]^[4]
Parties		Votes	Votes %	Wards
	Labour	658,089	38.5	172
	Conservative	488,905	28.6	112
	SNP	215,502	12.6	18
	Liberal	87,333	5.1	11
	Independent/Other	261,372	15.3	114/5
Total

Summary of the 1974 Scottish District local council election results^[2]^[3]
Parties		Votes	Votes %	Wards
	Labour	619,531	38.4	428
	Conservative	433,287	26.8	241
	SNP	200,307	12.4	62
	Liberal	80,232	5.0	17
	Independent/Other	280,946	17.5	345/17
Total

Note: Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles were governed at the district level as unitary authorities, meaning they were not included in any larger region.

Council Results

Regional Councils

Region	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other	Total Seats		Details
Borders	0	7	0	3	13	0	29	Independent	Details
Central	17	4	9	0	3	1	34	Labour	Details
Dumfries and Galloway	2	0	0	0	33	0	35	Independent	Details
Fife	26	10	0	0	3	3 (1 Communist)	42	Labour	Details
Grampian	13	28	0	2	10	0	53	Conservative	Details
Highland	4	2	1	3	37	0	47	Independent	Details
Lothian	24	19	3	1	1	1	49	No overall control	Details
Orkney								Independent	Details
Shetland								Independent	Details
Strathclyde	71	20	5	2	5	0	103	Labour	Details
Tayside	15	22	0	0	9	0	46	No overall control	Details
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)								Independent	Details

^[3]

District Councils

^[3]

Region	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other	Total Seats
Borders	1	9	0	0	44	0	54
Central	29	9	21	0	8	0	67
Dumfries and Galloway	5	1	1	0	61	2	70
Fife	43	24	2	1	10	4	84
Grampian	30	25	1	4	48	0	108
Highland	4	0	4	2	99	0	109
Lothian	62	38	8	3	5	1	127
Orkney
Shetland
Strathclyde	225	92	25	7	49	8	406
Tayside	29	43	0	0	21	1	94
Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles)

The seats on each district council after the election were as follows:^[5]

Borders

District	Labour	Conservative	Independent	Other
Berwickshire	0	10	2	0	Conservative
Ettrick and Lauderdale	1	0	14	0	Independent
Roxburgh	0	0	13	Border Independents 3	Independent
Tweeddale	0	0	10	0	Independent

Central

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Independent	Other
Clackmannan	5	1	5	0	Scottish Labour 1	No overall control
Falkirk	16	2	12	3	Independent Labour 1 Non-Party 2	No overall control
Stirling	7	8	4	1	0	NOC

Dumfries and Galloway

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Independent	Other
Annandale and Eskdale	0	0	0	14	0	Independent
Nithsdale	6	1	1	17	Non-Party 5	Independent
Stewartry	0	0	0	12	0	Independent
Wigtown	0	0	0	14	0	Independent

Fife

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Other
Dunfermline	17	5	3	1	4	0	Labour
Kirkcaldy	24	5	0	0	2	Ratepayers 4 Communist 1	NOC
North-East Fife	0	13	0	0	5	0	Conservative

Grampian

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent
Banff and Buchan	0	0	0	0	18	Independent
City of Aberdeen	28	17	0	3	0	Labour
Gordon	0	3	0	2	7	Independent
Kincardine and Deeside	0	2	0	0	10	Independent
Moray	0	0	1	0	17	Independent

Highland

District	Labour	SNP	Independent
Badenoch and Strathspey	0	0	10	Independent hold
Caithness	0	0	15	Independent hold
Inverness	0	0	15	Independent hold
Lochaber 2 vacancies	3	0	7	Independent
Nairn	0	3	7	Independent
Ross and Cromarty	0	0	20	Independent hold
Skye and Lochalsh	0	0	10	Independent
Sutherland	0	0	14	Independent

Lothian

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent
City of Edinburgh	27	31	2	3	1	No overall control
East Lothian	10	6	0	0	1	Labour
Midlothian	11	2	1	0	1	Labour
West Lothian	10	0	8	0	3	NOC

Strathclyde

District	Labour	Conservative	SNP	Liberal	Independent	Others
Argyll and Bute 1 vacancy	0	0	0	0	25	0	Independent
Bearsden and Milngavie	1	5	0	0	4	0	No overall control
Clydebank	5	1	3	0	0	Scottish Labour 1	Labour
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth	3	0	7	0	0	0	SNP
Cumnock and Doon Valley	8	1	0	0	1		Labour
Cunninghame	14	0	1	0	2	Moderate Conservatives 7	Labour
Dumbarton	8	2	0	0	5	0	Labour
East Kilbride	5	2	7	0	1	0	No overall control
Eastwood	0	10	0	0	0	Ratepayers 2	Conservative
City of Glasgow	54	16	1	0	0	Independent Conservative 1	Labour
Hamilton	13	2	2	2	1	Independent Labour 0	Labour
Inverclyde	14	2	0	6	1	0	Labour
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	12	4	0	0	0	0	Labour
Kyle and Carrick	10	15	0	0	0	0	Conservative
Lanark	4	0	2	0	8	0	Independent
Motherwell	25	1	2	1	1	Communist 0	Labour
Monklands	15	4	1	0	1	0	Labour
Renfrew	25	10	1	0	3	CA 1	Labour
Strathkelvin	6	5	3	0	0	0	No overall control

Tayside

District	Labour	Conservative	Independent	Others
Angus	3	11	8	0	Conservative
City of Dundee	22	20	2	Real Labour 1 Monifeith Ratepayers 0	NOC
Perth and Kinross	4	19	6	0	Conservative

References

^ Faux, Ronald (5 May 1977). "SNP seizes 107 seats". The Times. pp. 1, 4.
^ ^a ^b Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael (2013). Local Elections in Britain. Routledge. pp. Table 7.5.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "appendices" (PDF). www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk. 1976. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
^ "Scottish Elections". Scottish Elections. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
^ "Results of Scottish district council elections". The Times. 5 May 1977. p. 4.

[1] Faux, Ronald (5 May 1977). "SNP seizes 107 seats". The Times. pp. 1, 4.

[Rallings-2] Rallings, Colin; Thrasher, Michael (2013). Local Elections in Britain. Routledge. pp. Table 7.5.

[Council-3] "appendices" (PDF). www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk. 1976. Retrieved 2 June 2021.

[4] "Scottish Elections". Scottish Elections. Retrieved 2 June 2021.

[5] "Results of Scottish district council elections". The Times. 5 May 1977. p. 4.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

v t e Elections and referendums in Scotland
Scottish Parliament	1999 2003 2007 2011 2016 2021 Next
Parliament of Scotland	1612 1617 1621 1628 1639 1644 1648 1661 1669 1681 1685 1702
Convention of Estates	1617 1625 1630 1643 1665 1667 1678 1689
UK Parliament	1801 co-option 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019 2024
Local elections	1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1977 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1995 1999 2003 2007 2012 2017 2022
Referendums	1979 1997 2014
Scotland portal

v t e (1973 ←) 1974 United Kingdom local elections (→ 1975)
London boroughs	Barking Barnet Bexley Brent Bromley Camden Croydon Ealing Enfield Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith Haringey Harrow Havering Hillingdon Hounslow Islington Kensington and Chelsea Kingston upon Thames Lambeth Lewisham Merton Newham Redbridge Richmond upon Thames Southwark Sutton Tower Hamlets Waltham Forest Wandsworth Westminster
District councils (Scotland)	Aberdeen Angus Annandale and Eskdale Argyll Badenoch and Strathspey Banff and Buchan Bearsden and Milngavie Berwickshire Bishopbriggs and Kirkintilloch Caithness Clackmannan Clydebank Cumbernauld Cumnock and Doon Valley Cunninghame Dumbarton Dundee Dunfermline East Kilbride East Lothian Eastwood Edinburgh Ettrick and Lauderdale Falkirk Glasgow Gordon Hamilton Inverclyde Inverness Kilmarnock and Loudoun Kincardine and Deeside Kirkcaldy Kyle and Carrick Lanark Lochaber Merrick Midlothian Monklands Moray Motherwell Nairn Nithsdale North East Fife Perth and Kinross Renfrew Ross and Cromarty Roxburgh Skye and Lochalsh Stewartry Stirling Sutherland Tweeddale West Lothian
Regional councils (Scotland)	Borders Central Dumfries and Galloway Fife Grampian Highland Lothian Orkney Shetland Strathclyde Tayside Western Isles
See also: UK General election (Feb) UK General election (Oct)