2017 Stirling Council election

Elections to Stirling Council were held on 4 May 2017, the same day as the 31 other local authorities in Scotland. The election used the seven wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with 23 councillors being elected, an increase of 1 from 2012. Each ward elected either 3 or 4 members, using the STV electoral system. Following the Fifth Electoral Review by the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland, minor changes were made to several of the ward boundaries and one additional Councillor was added moving the total number of Councillors from twenty-two to twenty-three.

2017 Stirling Council election

4 May 2017
All 23 seats to Stirling Council 12 seats needed for a majority
Leader Neil Benny Scott Farmer Danny Gibson Party Conservative SNP Labour Leader's seat Stirling West Stirling West Stirling North Last election 4 seats, 18.2% 9 seats, 40.1% 8 seats, 36.4% Seats before 4 9 8 Seats after 9 9 4 Seat change 5 - 4   Leader Alasdair Tollemache Party Scottish Green Leader's seat Dunblane and Bridge of Allan Last election 1 seat, 5.8% Seats before 1 Seats after 1 Seat change -
The 7 multi-member wards
Council Leader before election Johanna Boyd Labour Council Leader after election Scott Farmer SNP

The election saw the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party increased their representation on the council by five and significantly increase their vote share. The SNP retained their nine seats (though lost the council seat they had won in a 2015 by-election) and the Scottish Green Party retained their one seat. The Scottish Labour Party saw their representation on the Council drop by four seats and the Scottish Liberal Democrats and all independent candidates failed to win any seats.

Following the 2012 election a coalition had been formed between the Labour Party and the Conservatives which replaced the previous SNP minority administration. In the aftermath of the 2017 election a new coalition was agreed between the SNP and Labour with Labour Councillor Christine Simpson becoming Provost of Stirling and the SNP's Graham Houston becoming depute convener of the council.[1]

2017 Results

Stirling Local Election Result 2017

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	9	5	0	5	40.9%	37.9%	13,261	18.0%
	SNP	9	2	2	-	40.9%	35.5%	12,408	1.7%
	Labour	4	0	4	4	13.6%	14.5%	5,072	14.1%
	Scottish Green	1	0	0	-	4.5%	6.7%	2,339	0.9%
	Liberal Democrats	0	0	0	-	-	3.4%	1,180	2.1%
	Independent	0	0	0	-	-	2.0%	715	0.4%

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

Trossachs and Teith

• 2012: 2xSNP; 1xCon
• 2017: 2xCon; 1xSNP
• 2012-2017 Change: 1 Con gain from SNP

Trossachs and Teith - 3 seats[2]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Conservative	Martin Earl (incumbent)	38.1	2,027
	SNP	Evelyn Tweed	20.5	1,090	1,105.8	1,112.5	1,227.6	1,306.6	1,311.7	2,077.4
	SNP	Fergus Wood (incumbent)	14.6	776	799.4	809.1	850.8	890.2	891.7
	Conservative	Jeremy McDonald	11.9	632	1,210.5	1,250.7	1,286.6	1,378.5
	Labour	Gerry McGarvey	6.1	326	342.2	391.3	478.6
	Scottish Green	Gordon Cowtan	5.4	286	296.3	347.7
	Liberal Democrats	Galen Milne	3.3	177	191.5
Electorate: 9,147   Valid: 5,314   Spoilt: 118   Quota: 1,329   Turnout: 59.4%

Forth and Endrick

• 2012: 2xSNP; 1xCon
• 2017: 2xCon; 1xSNP
• 2012-2017 Change: 1 Con gain from SNP

Forth and Endrick - 3 seats[3]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Conservative	Alistair Berrill (incumbent)	26.6	1,651
	Conservative	Robert Davies ‡	18.5	1,147	1,234.4	1,255.6	1,355.4	1,597.0
	SNP	Graham Lambie (incumbent)	16.5	1,026	1,027.4	1,117.4	1,165.5	1,256.6	1,259.7	2,276.2
	SNP	Ian Muirhead (incumbent)	13.8	859	859.9	942.0	1,031	1,243.3	1,246.4
	Independent	Evan McLean	10.1	630	632.5	702.7	899.0
	Labour	Richard Simpson	8.5	529	530.4	602.5
	Scottish Green	Michael Marten	6.0	371	371.6
Electorate: 10,405   Valid: 6,213   Spoilt: 115   Quota: 1,554   Turnout: 60.8%

Dunblane and Bridge of Allan

• 2012: 1xSNP; 1xCon; 1xLab; 1xGreen
• 2017: 2xCon; 1xSNP; 1xGreen
• 2012-2017 Change: 1 Con gain from Lab

Dunblane and Bridge of Allan - 4 seats[4]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	Conservative	Alastair Majury	22.1	1,543
	Conservative	Douglas Dodds	21.5	1,502
	SNP	Graham Houston (incumbent)	17.2	1,203	1,205.4	1,208.3	1,250.0	1,885.6
	Labour	Mike Robbins (incumbent)	11.8	824	849.8	866.3	1,053.3	1,076.4	1,143.4
	SNP	Rosemary Hunter	10.4	723	724.4	724.6	741.8
	Scottish Green	Alasdair Tollemache	10.1	706	717.2	727.1	883.5	950.6	1,218.4	1,763.6
	Liberal Democrats	Stuart Auld	6.8	476	512.0	536.0
Electorate: 11,484   Valid: 6,977   Spoilt: 123   Quota: 1,396   Turnout: 61.8%

Stirling North

• 2017: 2xSNP; 1xCon; 1xLab
• 2012-2017 Change: New ward

Stirling North - 4 seats[5]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	Conservative	Ross Oxburgh	26.7	1,237
	SNP	Susan McGill	22.8	1,054
	SNP	Jim Thomson (incumbent)	15.7	727	740.3	845.6	862.2	885.2	899.7	906.4	1,246.3
	Labour	Danny Gibson (incumbent)	13.3	616	665.1	668.7	682.2	729.8	994.1
	Scottish Green	Chloe Campbell	10.7	496	511.0	519.1	543.9	614.0	637.2	655.3
	Labour	Jen Preston	5.7	266	302.8	305.9	312.9	349.6
	Liberal Democrats	Fayzan Rehman	3.2	150	205.6	206.1	222.4
	Independent	James McDonald	1.8	85	117.3	118.3
Electorate: 10,512   Valid: 4,631   Spoilt: 124   Quota: 927   Turnout: 45.2%

Stirling West

• 2012: 1xLab; 1xSNP; 1xCon
• 2017: 1xCon; 1xSNP; 1xLab
• 2012-2017 Change: No change

Stirling West - 3 seats[6]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6
	Conservative	Neil Benny (incumbent)	39.5	2,076
	SNP	Scott Farmer (incumbent)	20.9	1,096	1,116.6	1,156.6	1,193.2	1,213.1	1,944.5
	Labour	Christine Simpson (incumbent)	17.8	936	1,151.4	1,210.8	1,456.0
	SNP	Morag Fulton	12.8	671	676.5	755.2	786.5	805.3
	Scottish Green	Kevin Ralston	4.8	251	287.0
	Liberal Democrats	Robert Skilleter	4.2	221	411.4	480.9
Electorate: 9,637   Valid: 5,251   Spoilt: 74   Quota: 1,313   Turnout: 55.3%

Stirling East

• 2012: 2xLab; 1xSNP
• 2017: 1xCon; 1xLab; 1xSNP
• 2012-2017: Change: 1 Con gain from Lab

Stirling East - 3 seats[7]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	SNP	Alison Laurie	24.2	916	920	962
	Conservative	Bryan Flanagan	21.3	806	825	833	833.2	848.2	883.0	1060.0
	Labour	Chris Kane	19.8	751	768	797	797.7	1,153.8
	SNP	Gerry McLaughlan (incumbent)	17.9	678	680	705	717.9	739.0	774.8
	Labour	Corrie McChord (incumbent)	11.0	416	427	440	440.3
	Scottish Green	Linda Hendry	3.3	125	150
	Liberal Democrats	William Galloway	2.5	94
Electorate: 8,479   Valid: 3,786   Spoilt: 93   Quota: 947   Turnout: 45.7%

Bannockburn

• 2012: 2xLab; 1xSNP
• 2017: 2xSNP; 1xLab
• 2012-2017 Change: 1 SNP gain from Lab

Bannockburn - 3 seats[8]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	SNP	Alasdair MacPherson (incumbent)	24.9	871	880
	Labour	Margaret Brisley (incumbent)	23.9	837	854	854.3	871.3	1,093.3
	SNP	'Maureen Bennison' ‡	20.5	718	722	725.2	765.3	779.3	813.1	913.9
	Conservative	Paul Henke	18.3	640	653	653.1	662.1	683.1	723.4
	Labour	Violet Weir (incumbent)	7.7	271	274	274.1	292.2
	Scottish Green	Jennifer Tollemache	3.0	104	113	113.1
	Liberal Democrats	Gordon Bruce	1.8	62
Electorate: 8,672   Valid: 3,503   Spoilt: 124   Quota: 876   Turnout: 41.8%

Changes between 2017 and 2022

‡ Changes of affiliation

On 17 May 2017 Robert Davies (Forth and Endrick) was suspended from the Scottish Conservative party over potentially offensive Twitter posts.[9][10] He was reinstated on 21 August 2017. However, on 29 September 2017, Robert Davies resigned from the Conservative group at a council meeting and subsequently had his Conservative party membership terminated. He now sits as an independent councillor.[11]

On 5 August 2020 it was reported[12] that Maureen Bennison (Bannockburn) has resigned from the Scottish Nationalist Party, due to bullying, sexism and party in-fighting. It was reported in her letter to her former group leader and current council leader, Cllr Scott Farmer (Stirling West) that: “This has been an extremely difficult decision, but it is the only principled course of action left to me in regrettable circumstances.

“Since being elected in May 2017, I have championed women’s rights and, through the public safety committee I chair, a huge amount of work has been done to advance better outcomes for women facing a range of difficult issues, from poverty to domestic abuse.

“However, during this same period, women have been attacked by elements within my own party due to concerns made over the Scottish Government’s proposed changes to gender recognition and the danger these may erode hard-won women’s rights. Reasonable debate has proved impossible, and instead, toxic abuse and threats have been heaped out on any woman prepared to speak out on the issue.”

Cllr Maureen Bennison also added in the letter to Cllr Scott Farmer that: “I have made repeated complaints to our council group regarding this matter, and sought their assistance against this abuse, but although several colleagues have been extremely supportive, others have certainly not been. Indeed, I have felt bullied to sit down and shut up by one particular colleague. I will not sit down and shut up for anyone.

“It is depressing that toxic gender politics seems to be the prime issue vexing some in prominent positions in our local party.I will continue to vote and work in the best interests of my constituents. I sincerely hope that certain people in the party reflect on their behaviour, the damage it is doing to the SNP, and to the cause of Scottish independence – a cause to which I remain absolutely and totally committed". She now sits as an independent councillor, alongside Robert Davies (Forth and Endrick).

References

1. "SNP and Labour agree coalition to run Stirling Council". BBC News. 24 May 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 May 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. "Racist tweets councillor leaves Tories". BBC News. 29 September 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
10. Jones, Gareth Iwan (12 May 2017). "Second newly-elected Tory councillor embroiled in offensive Twitter row". dailyrecord. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
11. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-41441573
12. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/stirling-snp-councillor-resigns-over-22475298

External links

• candidates standing for election 2017

External links