1999 Scottish local elections

Local elections were held in Scotland on 6 May 1999, the same day as First Scottish Parliament elections. It was the second election for all 32 Scottish councils and the first after a major review into all wards.

1999 Scottish local elections

← 1995 6 May 1999 (1999-05-06) 2003 →

All 1,222 seats to Scottish councils
  First party Second party
 
Leader Donald Dewar Alex Salmond
Party Labour SNP
Seats won 550 204
Seat change Decrease63 Increase23
Popular vote 829,921 655,299
Percentage 36.6% 28.7%
Swing Decrease7.0% Increase2.6%

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader David McLetchie Jim Wallace
Party Conservative Liberal Democrats
Seats won 108 156
Seat change Increase26 Increase35
Popular vote 308,170 289,236
Percentage 13.5% 12.7%
Swing Increase2.0% Increase2.9%

Colours denote the winning party with outright control

Boundary changes

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A Major review of all boundaries took place before the 1999 elections as part of the third comprehensive review by the independent Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland [1] which resulted in an overall reduction of wards to 1222 instead of 1245 and many wards were restructured.[2]

NOT a full list:

  • Aberdeen Lost 7 seats
  • Aberdeenshire Gained :
  • Argyll & Bute Gained
  • Dumfries & Galloway Lost
  • Falkirk Lost 4 seats:
  • Fife lost 12 seats.
  • Glasgow lost 4 seats.

Results

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Summary of the 1999 Scottish council election results[3]
Parties Votes Votes % Wards Wards % Net
Gain/Loss
Labour 829,921 36.6 550 45.0
SNP 655,299 28.7 204 16.7
Liberal Democrats 289,236 12.7 156 12.8
Conservative 308,170 13.5 108 8.8
Independent 172,297 7.5 191 16.0
Other 30,342 1.0 9 0.7
Total 2,285,345 n/a 1222 n/a n/a
  • Voter turnout: 59.1%

Councils

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Council 1995 result Control before election
(if different)
1999 result Details
Aberdeen City Labour Labour Details
Aberdeenshire No overall control No overall control Details
Angus SNP SNP Details
Argyll and Bute Independent Independent Details
Clackmannanshire Labour No overall control
Dumfries and Galloway Labour Labour
Dundee City Labour No overall control Details
East Ayrshire Labour Labour Details
East Dunbartonshire Labour NOC No overall control
East Lothian Labour Labour Details
East Renfrewshire No overall control No overall control Details
City of Edinburgh Labour Labour Details
Falkirk Labour No overall control Details
Fife Labour Labour Details
Glasgow City Labour Labour Details
Highland Independent Independent Details
Inverclyde Labour Labour Details
Midlothian Labour Labour Details
Moray SNP No overall control Details
Na h-Eileanan Siar Independent Independent
North Ayrshire Labour Labour
North Lanarkshire Labour Labour Details
Orkney Independent Independent Details
Perth and Kinross SNP NOC No overall control
Renfrewshire No overall control NOC Labour
Scottish Borders No overall control No overall control Details
Shetland Independent Independent Details
South Ayrshire Labour Labour Details
South Lanarkshire Labour Labour Details
Stirling Labour NOC No overall control (Lab minority)
West Dunbartonshire Labour Labour Details
West Lothian Labour Labour Details

See also

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Notes and references

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  1. ^ "Council ward boundary changes". scotland.gov.uk. 21 January 1999. Archived from the original on 27 April 2012.
  2. ^ "Unitary Council Political Compositions". scottishpolitics.org. Archived from the original on 11 December 2004.
  3. ^ Denver, David; Bochel, Hugh (Winter 2000), "The Forgotten Elections: The Scottish Council Elections of 1999", Scottish Affairs (PDF), vol. 30, archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2011, retrieved 14 July 2011