A history of South Ayrshire Council
The make-up of South Ayrshire Council has shifted dramatically since its creation in 1995.
In the first South Ayrshire Council election, Labour secured 21 of the 25 seats up for grabs, taking 56 per cent of the vote.
The Conservatives returned just four councillors, with 28.3 per cent of the vote. The council would remain dominated by the two parties for the next three terms, largely due to the single member wards operating on the ‘first past the post’ model.
The SNP would not gain a seat until 2007, despite gaining almost a quarter of South Ayrshire’s votes in 1999, with the change to single transferable votes and multimember wards ensuring a more representative return on voter share.
Over the course of the old style elections between 1995 and 2003, Labour lost six seats and almost 20 per cent of its voter share.
From having just four seats in 1995, the Conservatives were neck and neck with Labour by 2003, both winning 15 seats.
However, by this point they had overtaken Labour when it came to the popular vote, securing 41.5 percent compared to Labour’s 36.7 percent of the vote.
Despite this, Labour maintained control of the administration that term based on a cutting of the cards.
By 2003, the SNP had still not secured any seats and had seen 23.2 per cent return at the 1999 election drop back down to 17.3 per cent by 2003.
The introduction of the Single Transferable Vote and multi member wards in 2007 would then change the landscape dramatically.
In 2007 the SNP finally made it way onto South Ayrshire Council, securing eight seats.
Both of the previously dominant parties, Labour and the Conservatives, lost seats in 2007. Labour gained just one more seat than the SNP, with 9 councillors, while the Conservatives dropped to 12 seats.
It was the year that South Ayrshire Council saw its first Independent member, current Councillor Brian Connolly.
Labour continued to see declining numbers, with first preference Labour votes at 28.4 per cent, just three percent ahead of the SNP.
The Conservatives saw a less dramatic drop, from 41.5 per cent to 37.2 per cent.
The 2012 election saw the Conservatives’ lowest share of the vote since 1995, with just a 31 per cent share, narrowly beating the SNP, which overtook Labour for the first time with 29.3 percent of the vote.
Labour’s vote dropped to 25 per cent. The Conservatives won 10 seats, with the SNP and Labour winning nine apiece.
Voters also seemed to have changed their approach to look beyond the main parties, perhaps having come to terms with the new electoral system.
In 2007 independent candidates received just 3.3 percent of the vote. By 2012 this had risen to more than 13 per cent, with two being returned.
The last election in 2017 saw the number of councillors drop from 30 to 28.
Labour continued to see major losses, losing four of its nine seats and dropping to just over 15 per cent of the vote, by far its worst performance in terms of South Ayrshire elections.
At the same time the Conservatives gained a record 43.4 percent of the vote, returning 12 councillors.
The SNP had gained another five per cent share of the vote, but was unable to add to its nine seats.
However, despite these results, it was Labour who would go on to form an administration led by the SNP, with the Conservatives forced into opposition.
South Ayrshire Council election results (no. of seats and share of vote)
1995:
Labour 21 (56%) Cons 4 (28.3%) SNP 0 (12%) Ind 0 (3.5%)
1999:
Labour 17 (41.1%) Cons 13 (35.4%) SNP 0 (23.27%) Ind 0 (0.2%)
2003:
Labour 15 (36.7%) Cons 15 (41.5%) SNP 0 (17.3%) Ind 0 (2.9%) Scottish Socialist 0 (1.3%)
2007:
(First STV election) Cons 12 (37.2%), Lab 9 (28.4%) SNP 8 (25.3%) Ind 1 (3.3%) Solidarity 0 (0.6%) Scottish Socialist 0 (0.1%)
2012:
Cons 10 (31.5%), SNP 9 (29.3%) Lab 9 (25%) Ind 2 (13.51%) Lib Dems 0 (0.67%)
2017:
Cons 12 (43.4%) SNP 9 (30.2%), Lab 5 (15.2%) Ind 2 (7.1%) Green 0 (0.6%)