Tayside () was one of the nine regions used for local government in Scotland from 16 May 1975 to 31 March 1996. The region was named after the River Tay.

History

Tayside region was created in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which established a two-tier structure of local government across mainland Scotland comprising upper-tier regions and lower-tier districts, following recommendations made by the 1969 Wheatley Report. Tayside region covered the whole area of the

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

of Angus,

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

(which was a county of a city), Kinross-shire and most of

Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...

. Tayside region was divided into three districts: Angus,

, and

Perth and Kinross Perth and Kinross (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. It is bordered by Highland (council area), Highland and Aberdeenshire to the north, Angus, Scotland, Angus, Dundee, and F ...

. Tayside region was abolished in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, which replaced regions and districts with unitary council areas. Each of Tayside's three districts became a separate council area, with some adjustments to boundaries around Dundee. Tayside Regional Council directly operated local bus services in the City of Dundee from 1975 until 1986, when bus deregulation under terms of the Transport Act 1985 was implemented. The restructured Tayside Buses became employee-owned in 1991, was sold to National Express in 1997 and McGill's Bus Services in 2020, and today trades as Xplore Dundee. Tayside continues to have a joint electoral, valuation, and health board. It retained its

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

and fire services until they were merged, on 1 April 2013, into bodies known as Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, which cover the whole of Scotland. Provision of healthcare across the region also continues via NHS Tayside. Angus Council, Dundee City Council and Perth and Kinross Council formed Tayside Contracts as their commercial arm and to provide shared services, such as road and housing maintenance, winter maintenance (snow clearing and gritting), catering and cleaning services across the former Tayside area. Tayside Contracts services are open to the public and all profits from the company are equally fed back into each of the three councils to bolster revenue to the local authorities to provide cash for services as a boost to central government and council tax income.

Political control

The first election to the regional council was held in 1974, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until it came into its powers on 16 May 1975. Political control of the council from 1975 was as follows:

Leadership

The leaders of the council were:

Elections

Election results were as follows:

Premises

The regional council established its headquarters at Tayside House at 28 Crichton Street in Dundee. It was already under construction when the council was created, and the council started moving into the building in May 1976. After the regional council's abolition, ownership of the building passed to the three successor councils. Dundee City Council bought out the other two councils' interests in the building in 1997 and used it as its own offices until 2011, after which the building was demolished.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 56, 42, N, 3, 44, W, region:GB_scale:300000, display=title Regions of Scotland 1975 establishments in Scotland 1996 disestablishments in Scotland States and territories established in 1975 States and territories disestablished in 1996