Aberdeen City Council

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Aberdeen City Council
Aiberdeen Ceitie Cooncil
Comhairle Cathair Obar Dheathain
Aberdeen City in Scotland.svg
Admin HQ Aberdeen
Government
 • Body Aberdeen City Council
 • Control TBA (council NOC)
 • MPs Callum McCaig
Alex Salmond
Kirsty Blackman
 • MSPs Mark McDonald
Kevin Stewart
Maureen Watt
Area
 • Total 27.50 sq mi (71.22 km2)
Area rank Ranked 25th
Population (2010 est.)
 • Total 223,000
 • Rank Ranked 8th
 • Density 3,030/sq mi (1,169/km2)
ONS code 00QA
ISO 3166 code GB-ABE
Website aberdeencity.gov.uk

Aberdeen City Council represents the Aberdeen City council area of Scotland. Following the Aberdeen City Council election, 2012, the council is controlled by a coalition of Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservative and independent councillors.[1]

The council area was created in 1996, under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. However, a sense of Aberdeen as a city, with its own city council, can be traced back to 1900, when the county of the city of Aberdeen was created.

In 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, counties of cities were abolished. The area of the former county of a city was combined with Bucksburn, Dyce, Newhills, Old Machar, Peterculter and the Stoneywood areas of the county of Aberdeen, and the Nigg area of the county of Kincardine, (including Cove Bay) to form the Aberdeen district of the Grampian region. This district became the now existing unitary council area in 1996.

On 9 May 1995, by resolution under section 23 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, the City of Aberdeen Council changed the name of the local government area of "City of Aberdeen" to "Aberdeen City".[2]

Composition

Aberdeen City Council Chamber

Between 2003 and 2007, the council was under the control of a Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition, holding 23 of the 43 seats on the council. Prior to the 2003 election, the council had been considered a Labour stronghold.[3] Following the May 2007 election, contested for the first time using a system of proportional representation, the Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party (SNP) formed a coalition to run the council, holding 27 of the 43 seats (following an SNP by election gain from the Conservatives on 16 August 2007, the coalition held 28 of the 43 seats). Two Liberal Democrat councillors became independents during this period due to personal controversies, while the Conservative group split in August 2010, with two councillors forming the Independent Alliance Group.

After the May 2012 election, the control of the council shifted back to the Labour Party.[4] The Council is now controlled by a Labour-Conservative-Independent coalition, giving the administration 23 seats.

Aberdeen City Council comprises forty-three councillors, who represent the city's wards, and is headed by the Lord Provost, currently Councillor George Adam. The Leader of the Council is Councillor Jenny Laing of the Scottish Labour Party.

Political composition:

Chief Officials:

  • Chief Executive - Angela Scott
  • Head of Legal & Democratic Services - Fraser Bell

New wards from May 2007

Before May 2007, councillors represented 43 single-member wards, but since then,all seats were contested by a different electoral system. On 5 May 2007, it was the first election to use the single transferable vote system of election and multi-member wards, each ward electing three or four councillors. The Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland completed its final recommendations for new wards for all the council areas of Scotland and for Aberdeen there will be 13 multi-member wards with a total of 43 councillors. This system was introduced as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, and is designed to produce a form of proportional representation.[5]

The composition of wards are: 3 councillors:

4 councillors:

Election results, 2012

Aberdeen City Local Election Result 2012
Party Seats Gains Losses Net gain/loss Seats % Votes % Votes +/−
  Labour 17 7 0 7 39.5 29.7% 16,264
  SNP 15 4 1 3 34.9 31.3% 17,131
  Liberal Democrats 5 0 10 -10 11.6 15.1% 8,293
  Conservative 3 0 2 -2 7.0 9.7% 5,285
  Independent 3

Note: The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 3 May 2007. This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at dissolution of Scotland's councils.

Election Results, 2007

Aberdeen City Local Election Result 2007[6]
Party Seats Gains Losses Net gain/loss Seats % Votes % Votes +/−
  Liberal Democrats 15 N/A N/A -5 34.9 26.9 20,845
  SNP 12 N/A N/A +6 27.9 29.5 22,791
  Labour 10 N/A N/A -3 23.3 24.6 19,003
  Conservative 5 N/A N/A +2 11.6 14.1 10,889
  Independent 1 N/A N/A 0 2.3 2.7 2,090
  Scottish Green 0 N/A N/A 0 0.0 1.6 1,204
  Solidarity 0 N/A N/A 0 0.0 0.3 248
  Scottish Socialist 0 N/A N/A 0 0.0 0.3 218
  BNP 0 N/A N/A 0 0.0 0.1 81

References

  1. ↑ Team of unlikely bedfellows join forces to seize power
  2. ↑ Scottish Statutory Instrument 2011 No. 443
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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