Elections to

Midlothian Council Midlothian Council is the local authority for Midlothian, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, covering an area immediately south of the city of Edinburgh. The council is based in Dalkeith. Since the last boundary changes in 2017, eighteen ...

were held on 3 May 2007, the same day as the other

Scottish local government Local government in Scotland comprises thirty-two local authorities, commonly referred to as councils. Each council provides public services, including education, social care, waste management, libraries and planning. Councils receive the majori ...

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

and the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holy ...

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. The election was the first one using six new

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

created as a result of the

Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 The Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 (asp 9) is an Act of the Scottish Parliament which provided, amongst other things, for the election of councillors to the local authorities in Scotland by the single transferable vote system. The Commissi ...

. Each ward will elect three or four councillors using the

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

system form of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

. The new wards replace 18 single-member wards which used the

plurality Plurality may refer to: Voting * Plurality (voting), or relative majority, when a given candidate receives more votes than any other but still fewer than half of the total ** Plurality voting, system in which each voter votes for one candidate and ...

(

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

) system of election. Labour lost control of the council to no overall control, something which the party suffered in many other parts of Scotland. However, they regained control in 2008 when Cllr Katie Moffat defected from the Liberal Democrats to Labour. Overall, Labour lost six seats and the single independent lost their seat, with most going to the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

as well as a single gain for the Liberal Democrats.

Election results

Ward results

Changes since 2007 election

*† On 3 June 2008, Midlothian East Cllr Katie Moffat defected from the Liberal Democrats to the Labour Party. *†† On 29 March 2012, Bonnyrigg Cllr Jack Aitchison resigned from the Labour Party and now sits as an Independent. *††† On 5 April 2012, Dalkeith Cllr Alex Bennett formally resigned from the council to secure his Local Government pension.

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2007 2007 Scottish local elections

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...