Fife Council is the

local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

for the

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

area of Scotland and is the third largest Scottish council by number of councillors, having 75 elected council members. Councillors make decisions at its regular council meetings, or at those of its nine other general committees (covering for example tourism and transportation, education, environment, housing, licensing etc.), two planning committees, and seven area committees. The council has been under

no overall control In the context of local authorities in the United Kingdom no overall control (NOC; ) is a situation in which no single political group achieves a majority of seats, comparable to a hung parliament. Of the 248 councils who had members up for elec ...

since 2003. Following the 2022 election 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, ...

were the largest group on the council, but a minority Labour administration was formed with informal support from the Liberal Democrats and

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 ...

. A

Provost of Fife The Provost of Fife is the ceremonial head of Fife Council, a Scottish unitary authority covering the historic county of Fife. Along with the duties of an ordinary councillor, it is the Provost's duty to promote the values of the council, provide ...

is elected from among the councillors every five years, who chairs the full council meetings and acts as ceremonial head of the council. The current Provost is former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager

Jim Leishman Jim Leishman MBE (born 15 November 1953) is a Scottish Labour Party politician and former professional football player and manager. He is currently Provost of Fife and an honorary director of Scottish Championship side Dunfermline Athletic ...

MBE, who was first elected to the post in May 2012 and subsequently re-elected in 2017 and 2022. Political leadership is provided by the

leader of the council Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

, with the current leader being Labour councillor David Ross, who has been leader since 2014, being co-leader with David Alexander of the SNP between 2017 and 2022 when he became sole leader again.

History

Fife was one of Scotland's historic counties, with a Fife County Council existing from 1890 to 1975. In 1975 Fife became a

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

with three lower-tier district councils:

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; ; ) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, making it Fife's second-largest s ...

, and North-East Fife. Fife Regional Council and the three district councils were merged in 1996 to form a single

council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Ac ...

, governed by Fife Council.

Political control

The first election to Fife Regional Council was held in 1974, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new system came into force on 16 May 1975. A shadow authority was again elected in 1995 ahead of the change to council areas which came into force on 1 April 1996. Political control since 1975 has been as follows: Fife Regional Council Fife Council

Leadership

The leaders of the council since 1996 have been:

Premises

Fife Council is based at Fife House on North Street,

Glenrothes Glenrothes ( ; ; , ) is a town situated in the heart of Fife, in east-central Scotland. It had a population of 39,277 in the 2011 census, making it the third largest settlement in Fife and the 18th most populous locality in Scotland. Glenroth ...

. The building was built in 1969 for the Glenrothes Development Corporation, and became headquarters of Fife Regional Council on its creation in 1975. Prior to 1975 the old Fife County Council had been based at

County Buildings, Cupar 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 denotin ...

. Fife House passed to the new Fife Council on local government reorganisation in 1996.

Elections

Since 2007 elections have been held every five years under 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 ...

system, introduced by 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 ...

. Election results since 1995 have been as follows:

Wards

References

External links

Fife Council web site
{{Authority control Local authorities of Scotland Politics of Fife Organisations based in Fife Glenrothes