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The politics of the Highland council area in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
are evident in the deliberations and decisions of the
Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...
Council, in elections to the council, and in elections to the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...
(
Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
) 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 Holyr ...
( Holyrood). In the
European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...
the area was within the Scotland constituency, which covers all of the 32 council areas of Scotland.


Highland Council

The Highland Council (' in
Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, an ...
) comprises 22 wards, each electing three or four councillors by 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, which creates a 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 total number of councillors is 74, and the main meeting place and main offices are in Glenurquhart Road,
Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histor ...
.


Current administration

The most recent election of the council was on 4 May 2017, and resulted in a coalition administration formed by two of the four political parties on the council, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour party, together with the
Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...
group. The Coalition had 41 councillors, and the opposition was divided between 22 SNP councillors, 10 Conservatives, and 1
Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...
member. Subsequently, there have been nine by-elections and seven defections on the council. Following the by-elections, the independent administration have gained two, held one, and lost two councillors. Two councillors have also defected from the group, both currently sit with the Conservative group. The SNP have gained two, held one, and lost one councillor in by-elections, and an additional five councillors have resigned from the group. Of these five, one has since returned to the SNP group, three have formed a working group "Highland Matters" together with the sole Scottish Green member of the council, and the fifth remains unaligned to any group on the council. The Conservatives have lost two seats to by-elections, while they gained two from the aforementioned independent defections. The Liberal Democrats have won three and lost two councillors to by-elections. Finally, independent Cllr Ben Thompson for Caol and Mallaig resigned within six months prior to the scheduled date of the 2022 Highland Council election. Consequently, his vacancy will not be filled by a by-election.


2012 elections

The 2012 election was on 3 May, and resulted in a coalition administration formed by all three political parties on the council, the SNP, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour party. The Coalition had 45 councillors and the other 35 councillors were Independents. This arrangement collapsed in June 2015, and was replaced by a minority administration of the Independent group.


2007 elections

After the 2007 election, the Independent Group, led by Nairn ward councillor Sandy Park, effectively acted like a party, complete with a
party whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideolog ...
. Immediately after the 2007 council election, an administration had then been formed by the Independent Group and the SNP, but collapsed when the SNP withdrew from the coalition. After the collapse, a second ''independent'' group was formed, called the Independent Members Group. From August 2008, the council had been ruled by a coalition of the Independent Group and Liberal Democrat and Labour parties. This administration was established following the collapse of a ruling coalition of the Independent Group and
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 th ...
(SNP) in June 2008. In February 2010, a third ''independent'' group was formed, when four councillors left the Independent Group and created the Independent Alliance Group. Since then groups and parties have been represented as follows: The Liberal Democrat Michael Foxley had become the new council Convener by 23 December 2010.


Corporate and ward management areas

Since 2007, the 22 wards have been divided between three corporate management areas, and each of these is subdivided to create a total of 16 ward management areas. Some wards are grouped into larger areas for ward management purposes, and one ward is divided between two different ward management areas. Therefore, the number of ward management areas is less than the number of wards. The corporate management areas are named as (1) Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, (2) Inverness, Nairn, and Badenoch and Strathspey, and (3) Ross, Skye and Lochaber. Two of these names are also those of Westminster Parliament (
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
) constituencies, and one name is very similar to the name of another Westminster constituency, but constituency and corporate management area boundaries are different. Corporate management areas are represented, for some purposes, by their own committees. Also, there is an Inverness city management area covering seven of the nine wards (and thus four of the six ward management areas) of the Inverness, Nairn, and Badenoch and Strathspey corporate management area, with the city area being represented by a city committee. Public forums are held at ward level, and there are also private ward-level meetings of councillors. The numbers of wards in each corporate management area, and the number of councillors representing them, are as follows: For lists of wards and details of how they are grouped into corporate and ward management areas, see: *
Highland Council wards created in 2007 The third set of Highland Council wards, 22 in number, became effective for election purposes in 2007, for the fourth general election of the Highland Council. The new wards were created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, and are as ...


History

The first elections to the Highland Council were in 1995, when the
unitary council A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...
was created under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. Since then, there have been general elections of the council at four year intervals. Since 1999 these elections have coincided with general elections of 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 Holyr ...
, but the next council election has been delayed for a year, until 2012, to end this coincidence, making the current council term one of five years instead of four. The new council was created to replace a
regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
council and eight
district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...
councils, which had been created under the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered local government in Scotland on 16 May 1975. The Act followed and largely implemented the report of the Royal Commission on Local Gove ...
, and were abolished in 1996. Until 2007, the new council maintained decentralised management and committee structures which related to former district boundaries, except this arrangement was compromised by changes to ward boundaries in 1999, so that committees ceased to represent exactly the areas for which they were making decisions. Current management and committee structures, involving three corporate management areas and related committees, were created at the same time as the introduction of multi-member wards and single transferable vote elections in 2007. The 1995 election created a council of 72 members, each elected from a single-member ward by the
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. Ward boundaries were redrawn for the 1999 election, to create 80 single-member wards and, again, election was by the first past the post system. The same wards and the same system of election were used for the 2003 election. For the 2007 election, ward boundaries were redrawn again, under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, to create the current 22 multi-member wards, each electing three or four councillors by the single transferable vote system, but still electing a total of 80 councillors. The eight older management areas, created when district councils were abolished in 1996, were also groups of wards, and each management area had an
area committee Many large local government councils in the United Kingdom have a system of area committees or area boards, which involve local people and organisations in decisions affecting council spending within their area. They cover a geographical area suc ...
of councillors elected from the wards in the area. Three of the older management areas,
Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded ...
,
Nairn Nairn (; gd, Inbhir Narann) is a town and royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around east of Inverness, at the point where the River Nairn enters the Moray Firth. It is the tradit ...
and
Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later c ...
, were very similar to earlier local government counties. Two others,
Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histor ...
and
Ross and Cromarty Ross and Cromarty ( gd, Ros agus Cromba), sometimes referred to as Ross-shire and Cromartyshire, is a variously defined area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. There is a registration county and a lieutenancy area in current use, the lat ...
, had the names of earlier counties but have very different boundaries. The management areas were: For lists of wards see: *
Highland Council wards 1995 to 1999 The first set of Highland Council wards was first used for Highland Council election purposes in 1995, for the first general election of the council. They were replaced with 80 new wards for the second general election in 1999. The Highland Cou ...
*
Highland Council wards 1999 to 2007 The second set of Highland Council wards, 80 in number, became effective for election purposes in 1999, for the second general election of the Highland Council, and were used also for the third general election in 2003. These wards replaced 72 ol ...


Westminster and Holyrood

The council area is covered by three constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Westminster) and three constituencies of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). The Scottish Parliament constituencies are also components of that parliament's
Highlands and Islands The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides (Western Isles). The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 1 ...
electoral region. All the constituencies are entirely within the council area, but the Highlands and Islands electoral region includes also five other constituencies, covering the
Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
,
Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the n ...
and Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar) council areas and most of the
Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...
and
Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland (council area), ...
council areas. Since the creation of the unitary Highland council area, in 1996, the Westminster constituencies have been altered twice, in 1997 and 2005. Neither the Holyrood constituencies nor the Holyrood electoral region have been altered since their creation in 1999.


Westminster

As a geographic area the Highland council area is the largest in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. Working solely on the basis of the size of its
electorate Electorate may refer to: * The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate'' * The dominion of a Prince-elector in the Holy Roman Empire until 1806 * An electoral district or c ...
, however, it would qualify for just 2.3 Westminster seats. Boundary reviews have considered ways of addressing the area's apparent over representation, by reducing the number of constituencies to two, or by creating constituencies straddling boundaries with other council areas, but to date, for various geographic and cultural reasons, none of these proposals has been reflected in actual boundary changes.


1996 to 1997

The boundaries of one constituency had been established since the 1918 general election, the other two since the 1983 general election. There were no parliamentary elections during the 1996 to 1997 period. List of constituencies: : Caithness and Sutherland : Ross, Cromarty and Skye : Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber


1997 to 2005

All of the council area's constituencies were altered for the 1997 general election. The same constituencies were used in the 2001 general election. List of constituencies: : Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross : Ross, Skye and Inverness West : Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber


2005 to present

All of the council area's constituencies were altered for the 2005 general election. One, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, carries forward the name of a constituency created in 1997. This new constituency is slightly larger than the earlier constituency. List of constituencies and current
members of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
:


Holyrood

The Holyrood constituencies were created for the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, with the names and boundaries of then existing Westminster constituencies. The same Scottish Parliament constituencies were used in the
2003 Scottish Parliament election The 2003 Scottish Parliament election was the second election of members to the Scottish Parliament. It was held on 1 May 2003 and it brought no change in terms of control of the Scottish Executive. Jack McConnell, the Labour Party MSP, rema ...
and the
2007 Scottish Parliament election The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fe ...
. There was a Boundary Commission which changed all the constituencies for the 2011 Scottish Parliament election. List of constituencies and current Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs): In addition to these three constituency MSPs, the Highland council area, as part of the
Highlands and Islands The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands, plus Orkney, Shetland and Outer Hebrides (Western Isles). The Highlands and Islands are sometimes defined as the area to which the Crofters' Act of 1 ...
electoral region, is represented by seven additional members: : 4
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
MSPs - Douglas Ross,
Donald Cameron Donald Cameron may refer to: Scottish Clan Cameron * Donald Cameron of Lochiel (c. 1695 or 1700–1748), 19th Chief, and his descendants: ** Donald Cameron, 22nd Lochiel (1769–1832), 22nd Chief ** Donald Cameron of Lochiel (1835–1905), Scot ...
, Edward Mountain and Jamie Halcro Johnston : 1 Labour MSPs - Rhoda Grant : 1
Scottish Green Party The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; gd, Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Green Pairtie) are a green political party in Scotland. The party has seven MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of May 2021. As of the 20 ...
MSP - Ariane Burgess : 1
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 th ...
MSP - Emma Roddick


See also

* Politics of Aberdeen * Politics of Dundee * Politics of Edinburgh *
Politics of Glasgow The politics of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city by population, are expressed in the deliberations and decisions of Glasgow City Council, in elections to the council, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament. Local government As one of ...
*
Politics of Scotland The politics of Scotland operate within the constitution of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a home nation. Scotland is a democracy, being represented in both the Scottish Parliament and the Parliament of the United Kingdom since the Sco ...


Notes and references


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Politics Of The Highland Council Area Politics of Highland (council area) Highland (council area) Politics of the United Kingdom