2012 Orkney Islands Council election

The 2012 Orkney Council election took place on 3 May 2012 to elect members of Orkney Council. The election used the six wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with each ward electing three or four Councillors using the single transferable vote system a form of proportional representation, with 21 Councillors being elected.

2012 Orkney Islands Council election

3 May 2012
All 21 seats to Orkney 11 seats needed for a majority
Leader Steven Heddle Party Independent Leader's seat Kirkwall East Last election 21 seats, 100% Seats before 21 Seats won 21 Seat change -
Council Leader before election Stephen Hagan Independent Council Leader after election Steven Heddle Independent

As in 2007 Independents took all of the 21 seats on the Council. The Scottish National Party contested 4 wards in Orkney for the first time in 2012 but only secured 3% of the vote. The Council is again administered solely by Independents.

Election result

Orkney Local Election Result 2012

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Independent	21	-	-	-	100	96.9	8,161	-2.3
	SNP	0	-	-	-	-	3.0	251	+3.0
	UKIP	0	-	-	-	-	0.1	11	+0.1

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes. 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.

Ward results

Kirkwall East

• 2007: 4xIndependent
• 2012: 4xIndependent
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Kirkwall East - 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Independent	Janice Annal (incumbent)	34.34	533
	Independent	Steven Heddle (incumbent)	26.35	409
	Independent	Gwenda Shearer	13.71	212	278.9	307.9	319.6
	Independent	Bill Stout	9.02	140	198.6	227.1	232.9	235.3	263.2	300.9	377
	SNP	John Mowat	5.9	93	105.9	115.4	116.7	117.5	132.5
	Independent	Alastair MacLeod	4.96	77	114.7	129.2	136.1	137.8	151.6	174.2
	Independent	Gerry McGuinness	3.48	54	69.9	77.6	85.9	87.4
	Independent	Paul Dawson	1.80	28	37.6	40.5
Electorate: 3,391   Valid: 1,546   Spoilt: 6   Quota: 310   Turnout: 1,552 (45.75%)

Kirkwall West & Orphir

• 2007: 4xIndependent
• 2012: 4xIndependent
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Kirkwall West & Orphir - 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
	Independent	Jack Moodie (incumbent) †	30.85	476
	Independent	John Richards	18.34	283	318.1
	Independent	David Tullock (incumbent)	13.93	215	263.9	266.3	267.7	270.1	273.2	288.1	301.1	321.3
	Independent	Alan Clouston	13.80	213	232.9	234.7	236.8	243	248.8	260.2	272.3	281.9	285.9	368.4
	Independent	David Dawson	10.50	162	186.1	188.9	188.9	192.5	206.4	213.4	219.9	232.4	236.7
	SNP	Lynda Baird	3.24	50	52.8	53.2	53.2	53.3	54.3	56.3
	Independent	Laurence Leonard	2.72	42	49.5	49.6	52.7	52.7	54.5	58.9	64.3
	Independent	Sandra Shearer	2.2	34	43.6	44.1	44.1	45.2	50.9
	Independent	Raymond Smith	1.94	30	37.8	38.4	40.4	43.2
	Independent	Bryan Leslie	1.04	16	18.8	19.5	19.6
	Independent	Walter Haywood	0.58	9	9.7	9.9
Electorate: 3,289   Valid: 1,530   Spoilt: 13   Quota: 307   Turnout: 1,543 (46.94%)

Stromness and South Isles

• 2007: 3xIndependent
• 2012: 3xIndependent
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

Stromness and South Isles - 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Independent	James Stockan (incumbent)	53.2	576
	Independent	Rob Crichton	11.65	126	234.2	235.3	250.5	262.3	364.1
	Independent	Maurice Davidson	11.28	122	172.6	174.6	189.3	216.7	270.2
	Independent	John Brown	10.63	115	178.9	180.9	196.8	213.6
	Independent	Terry Thomson	5.64	61	82.9	84.4	100.6
	SNP	Arthur Alexander Robertson	5.64	61	79.7	81.2
	UKIP	Delia Mary Hall	1.02	11	15.3
Electorate: 2,210   Valid: 1,072   Spoilt: 10   Quota: 269   Turnout: 1,082 (48.76%)

West Mainland

• 2007: 4xIndependent
• 2012: 4xIndependent
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

West Mainland - 4 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Independent	Harvey Johnston	23.19	427
	Independent	Alistair Gordon (incumbent)††	17.49	322	333.3	335.5	353.6	371.4
	Independent	Jimmy Moar (incumbent)	15.59	287	303.2	307.2	317.4	319.4	320.4	353.1	470.1
	Independent	Owen Tierney	13.53	249	257	263	277.1	308.8	309.5	358.9	446.1
	Independent	Eoin F. Scott (incumbent)	12.93	238	246.4	249.6	254.8	276.2	277	314.4
	Independent	Victor Muir	7.17	132	136.9	139.9	143.9	150.1	150.5
	Independent	Andrew Appleby	4.02	74	77.7	81.7	93
	Independent	Carol Granere	3.97	73	75.1	78.1
	Independent	David Ward	1.79	33	33.4
Electorate: 3,379   Valid: 1,835   Spoilt: 6   Quota: 368   Turnout: 1,841 (54.53%)

East Mainland, South Ronaldsay and Burray

• 2007: 3xIndependent
• 2012: 3xIndependent
• 2007-2012 Change: No change

East Mainland, South Ronaldsay & Burray - 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Independent	Russ Madge (incumbent)	40.46	564
	Independent	Andrew Drever (incumbent)	18.72	261	315.2	331.6	344.5	375.3
	Independent	Jim Foubister (incumbent)	16.21	226	247.9	253.5	263.2	280.2	289.6	368.6
	Independent	Gill Smee	10.9	152	209.3	226.9	236.6	257.3	267.2
	Independent	Ken Ross	7.03	98	118.4	123.3	128.2
	SNP	Ewan Loudon	3.37	47	56.6	59.8
	Independent	Eleanor MacLeod	2.65	37	52.4
Electorate: 2,536   Valid: 1,385   Spoilt: 9   Quota: 347   Turnout: 1,394 (54.97%)

North Isles

• 2007: 3xIndependent
• 2012: 3xIndependent
• 2007-2012 Change: No Change

North Isles - 3 seats

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4
	Independent	Stephen Hagan (incumbent)	40.93	433
	Independent	Stephen Clackson	29.1	308
	Independent	Gillian Skuse	16.07	170	219.2	237.7
	Independent	Graham Sinclair (incumbent)	13.61	144	238.1	249.5	375.1
Electorate: 1,854   Valid: 1,055   Spoilt: 3   Quota: 264   Turnout: 1,058 (57.47%)

Post-Election Changes

• † Kirkwall West and Orphir Independent Cllr Jack Moodie resigned his seat for personal reasons on 9 September 2014. A by-election was held on 27 November 2014 and was won by the Independent Leslie Manson.
• †† West Mainland Independent Cllr Alistair Gordon died on 19 May 2015. A by-election was held on 18 August 2015 to fill the vacancy and it was won by the Independent Rachael King.

References

https://web.archive.org/web/20120608070718/http://www.orkney.gov.uk/Council/C/results-by-ward.htm