Blantyre is one of the 20

electoral wards The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and distr ...

South Lanarkshire Council South Lanarkshire Council ( gd, Comhairle Siorrachd Lannraig a Deas) is the unitary authority serving the South Lanarkshire council area in Scotland. The council has its headquarters in Hamilton, has 16,000 employees, and a budget of almost £1 ...

. Created in 2007, the ward initially elected 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 ...

electoral system before a boundary review in 2017 reduced the number of councillors to three. It covers an area with a population of 15,968 people. The ward is a Labour stronghold with the party holding at least two of the seats since the ward's creation. From 2014 to 2017, the party held all four seats in the ward.

Boundaries

The ward was created following the Fourth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the

2007 Scottish local elections The 2007 Scottish local elections were held on 3 May 2007, the same day as Scottish Parliament elections and local elections in parts of England. All 32 Scottish councils had all their seats up for election – all Scottish councils are unita ...

. 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 ...

, local elections in Scotland would use the

electoral system from 2007 onwards so Blantyre was formed from an amalgamation of several previous

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 ...

wards. It contained part of the former Burnbank/Blantyre and High Blantyre wards as well as all of the former Blantyre West and Coatshill/Low Blantyre wards. The Blantyre ward centres on the town of

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Li ...

, excluding the

Hamilton International Technology Park Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilton ...

and the modern

West Craigs West Craigs is the name given to two separate areas of Scotland: *A suburb on the western periphery of Edinburgh, south-east of Edinburgh Airport and close to The Gyle Shopping Centre, Gogar, Maybury and Edinburgh Gateway station. *A modern r ...

development on the town's southern periphery, in the north of South Lanarkshire between the towns of

Cambuslang Cambuslang ( sco, Cammuslang, from gd, Camas Lang) is a town on the south-eastern outskirts of Greater Glasgow, Scotland. With approximately 30,000 residents, it is the 27th largest town in Scotland by population, although, never having had a ...

and

Uddingston Uddingston ( sco, Uddinstoun, gd, Baile Udain) is a small town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is on the north side of the River Clyde, south-east of Glasgow city centre, and acts as a dormitory suburb for the city. Geography and boundarie ...

. The ward is bounded to the north and east by the

River Clyde The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...

, to the west by the

Rotten Calder The Rotten Calder is a river to the east of East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, Scotland and along with the Rotten Burn it forms the southern and western boundaries of Blantyre. It begins as the Calder Water at its source at Ardochrig, and is ...

and to the south by the A725 East Kilbride Expressway. The ward's northern boundary also coincides with the council's border with

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of th ...

. Following the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the

2017 Scottish local elections The 2017 Scottish local elections were held on Thursday 4 May, in all 32 local authorities. The SNP retained its position as the largest party in terms of votes and councillors, despite suffering minor losses. The Conservatives made gains and di ...

, streets around Ballantrae Road were transferred into Hamilton North and East. The review resulted in a reduction in the number of seats from four to three in order to balance with other wards with similar populations.

Councillors

Election results

2022 election

2017 election

2015 by-election

2012 election

2007 election

Notes

References

{{Wards of South Lanarkshire Wards of South Lanarkshire Blantyre, South Lanarkshire