Highland council area Shown as one of the council areas of Scotland

Politics of the Highland council area in Scotland are evident in the deliberations and decisions of the Highland Council,^[1] in elections to the council, and in elections to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster) and the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood).^[2] In the European Parliament the area is within the Scotland constituency, which covers all of the 32 council areas of Scotland.

Highland Council[link]

The Highland Council (Comhairle na Gaidhealtachd in Gaelic) represents 22 wards^[3][4], each electing three or four councillors^[3] by the single transferable vote system, which creates a form of proportional representation. The total number of councillors is 80^[4], and the main meeting place and main offices are in Glenurquhart Road, Inverness^[5].

Since August 2008, the council has been ruled by a coalition of the Independent Group and Liberal Democrat and Labour parties^[6]. This administration was established following the collapse of a ruling coalition of the Independent Group and Scottish National Party (SNP) in June 2008^[7].

The Independent Group, led by Nairn ward councillor Sandy Park, is effectively a party, complete with a party whip.

The Independent Group and SNP administration had been formed as a result of the fourth general election of the council, 3 May 2007, and collapsed when the SNP withdrew from the coalition. Also as a result of the collapse, a second independent group was formed, called the Independent Members Group.

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 ^[8]:

The Liberal Democrat Michael Foxley had become the new council Convener by 23 Dec 2010^[9][10][11]

The next general election of the council is scheduled for 2012.

Corporate and ward management areas[link]

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^[12]. 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) 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

History[link]

The first elections to the Highland Council were in 1995, when the unitary council 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, 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 council and eight district councils, which had been created under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, 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 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 in when district councils were abolished in 1996, were also groups of wards, and each management area had an area committee of councillors elected from the wards in the area. Three of the older management areas, Caithness, Nairn and Sutherland, were very similar to earlier local government counties. Two others, Inverness and Ross and Cromarty, 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
• Highland Council wards 1999 to 2007

Westminster and Holyrood[link]

The council area is covered by three constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster) and three constituencies of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). The Scottish Parliament constituencies are also components of that parliament's Highlands and Islands 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, Shetland and Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar) council areas and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray 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[link]

As a geographic area the Highland council area is the largest in Scotland. Working solely on the basis of the size of its electorate, 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[link]

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[link]

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[link]

All of the council area's constituencies were altered for the 2005 general election.^[13] 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 MPs (members of parliament):

Holyrood[link]

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 and the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. There was a Boundary Commission which changed all the constituencies for the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.

List of constituencies and current MSPs (members of the Scottish Parliament):

As a whole, including MSPs elected by constituencies in the Highland council area, the Highlands and Islands electoral region is represented by:

9 Scottish National Party MSPs (six constituency MSPs and three additional members)

2 Liberal Democrat MSPs (all constituency MSPs)

2 Labour MSPs (both additional members)

2 Conservative MSPs (both additional members)

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

• "Independents in talks on joint election campaign", The Scotsman, 9 September 2006

Coordinates: 57°28′25″N 4°14′04″W / 57.47362°N 4.23446°W / 57.47362; -4.23446