Clydesdale South 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 (subnational entity), ward'' is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil pa ...

South Lanarkshire Council South Lanarkshire Council is the unitary authority serving the South Lanarkshire council area in Scotland. The council has its headquarters in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, has 16,000 employees, and an annual budget of almost £1bn. Th ...

. Created in 2007, the ward elects three councillors using the

single transferable vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

electoral system and covers an area with a population of 14,621 people. The ward was previously a Labour stronghold with the party holding all three seats between 2014 and 2017. However, it has since become split between Labour, the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

(SNP) and the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

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 unitar ...

. 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 government in Scotland, local authorities in Scotland by the single transfera ...

, local elections in Scotland would use the

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

first-past-the-post First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or First-preference votes, first-preference, and the cand ...

wards. It contained the majority of the former

Lesmahagow Lesmahagow ( ; or ''Lesmahagae'', ) is a small town in the historic county of Lanarkshire on the edge of moorland, near Lanark in the central belt of Scotland. Lesmahagow was also a civil parish. It lies west of the M74 motorway, M74, and sout ...

ward and part of the former

Clyde Valley The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. T ...

ward as well as all of the former Blackwood and

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking * Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...

wards. Unlike the name suggests, Clydesdale South covers a primarily rural area in western Clydesdale in the southwest of South Lanarkshire next to its boundary with

East Ayrshire East Ayrshire (; ) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquarters of the council are located on London Roa ...

. The largest settlements in the ward are Blackwood/

Kirkmuirhill Kirkmuirhill is a village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It borders Blackwood, near Lanark and is sited near Junction 9 of the M74 motorway. History In 1810 John Begg, husband of Robert Burns' youngest sister Isabella, became the land stewar ...

and

and it includes the villages of Coalburn,

and

Rigside Rigside is a small village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, about from the town of Lanark, and less than from Douglas Water. It lies on the A70 road to Ayr, and has approximately 800 inhabitants. Rigside is a former mining village. The villa ...

. 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 d ...

Boundaries

Councillors

Election results

2022 election

2017 election

2014 by-election

2012 election

2007 election

Notes

References