2022 South Ayrshire Council election

2022 South Ayrshire Council election

← 2017 5 May 2022 (2022-05-05) 2027 →
All 28 seats to South Ayrshire Council 15 seats needed for a majority
Registered	92,112
Turnout	49.7%
First party Second party   Leader Martin Dowey Peter Henderson Party Conservative SNP Leader's seat Ayr West Girvan and South Carrick Last election 12 seats, 43.4% 9 seats, 30.2% Seats before 11 9 Seats won 10 9 Seat change 2 Popular vote 14,520 14,838 Percentage 33.3% 34.1% Swing 10.1% 3.9%   Third party Fourth party   Ind Leader Brian McGinley N/A Party Labour Independent Leader's seat Ayr East N/A Last election 5 seats, 15.2% 2 seats, 10.7% Seats before 5 3 Seats won 5 4 Seat change 2 Popular vote 7,276 5,313 Percentage 16.7% 12.2% Swing 1.5% 1.5%
Leader before election Peter Henderson (SNP) No overall control Leader after election Martin Dowey (Conservative) No overall control

Elections to South Ayrshire Council took place on 5 May 2022 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections, it was held using single transferable vote (STV) – a form of proportional representation – in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference.

Despite shedding almost a quarter of their vote and coming second in the popular vote, the Conservatives retained their position as the largest party returning 10 councillors - two less than in the previous election. Both the Scottish National Party (SNP) – who topped the popular vote – and Labour made no gains or losses to remain as the second and third parties respectively. The number of independents returned increased from two to four.

Following the election the Conservatives formed a minority administration, replacing the previous SNP-Labour-Independent administration which was formed as a result of the previous election in 2017.