1995 South Lanarkshire Council election

1995 South Lanarkshire Council election
6 April 1995 (1995-04-06) 1999 →
All 72 seats to South Lanarkshire Council
37 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party
 
Lab
SNP
Leader Tom McCabe
Party Labour SNP
Leader's seat Larkhall West
Last election 37 seats, 45.5%[Note 1] 6 seats, 25.3%[Note 2]
Seats won 60 8
Seat change Increase 23 Increase 2
Popular vote 61,452 28,918
Percentage 57.1% 26.9%
Swing Increase 11.6 Increase 1.6
  Third party Fourth party
 
LD
Con
Party Liberal Democrats Conservative
Last election 3 seats, 9.6%[Note 3] 7 seats, 15.8%[Note 4]
Seats won 2 2
Seat change Decrease 1 Decrease 5
Popular vote 7,705 7,559
Percentage 7.1% 7.0%
Swing Decrease 2.5 Decrease 8.8
Council Leader after election

Tom McCabe
Labour

The first elections to South Lanarkshire Council were held on 6 April 1995, on the same day as the 28 other Scottish local government elections. The council was created from the former Clydesdale, East Kilbride and Hamilton district councils plus the four wards of the City of Glasgow District Council in Rutherglen and Cambuslang and assumed some of the responsibilities of the former Strathclyde Regional Council following the implementation of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.

The election was the first since the Second Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements which was initially meant to decide boundaries for the district and regional councils. After the district councils were abolished by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, the review was instead used to decide boundaries for the newly created unitary authority in Clydesdale, East Kilbride and Hamilton. As a result, there remained 16 seats covering the former Clydesdale District while 20 seats were established for the former East Kilbride District, an increase of four, and 25 seats were established for the former Hamilton District, five more than had been in use since the Initial Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements in 1981. In Rutherglen and Cambuslang, the proposed new wards were disregarded by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland Allan Stewart who created 13 new wards.[1][2][3]

Labour took control of the council after winning 60 of the 72 wards which were up for election. The Scottish National Party (SNP) took eight seats while the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives both won two seats.

  1. ^ "Initial Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements". Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Second Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements". Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference SCE1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).