2017 Clackmannanshire Council election

The Clackmannanshire Council election of 2017 was held on 4 May 2017, on the same day as the 31 other local authorities in Scotland. It was the third successive election to run under the STV electoral system and used the five wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with 18 councillors being elected.

Main article: 2017 Scottish local elections

2017 Clackmannanshire Council election

4 May 2017 (2017-05-04)
All 18 seats to Clackmannanshire Council 10 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Les Sharp Dave Clark Bill Mason Party SNP Labour Conservative Leader's seat Clackmannanshire West Clackmannanshire North Clackmannanshire East Last election 8 seats, 46.1% 8 seats, 38.1% 1 seat, 9.9% Seats before 8 8 1 Seats won 8 5 5 Seat change - 3 4
The 5 multi-member ward. (Colour of ward represents the political party that received most votes in that ward)
Council Leader before election Gary Womersley SNP Council Leader after election Les Sharp SNP

Result

As Scottish Labour lost three seats and the Scottish National Party held all of theirs, the SNP became the largest party for the first time. The Scottish Conservatives unexpectedly won a seat in every ward, equalling their representation on the council with that of Labour.[1]

During the first meeting of the new council on 18 May, however, an agreement was not reached on how to form an administration.[2] In June 2017 a minority SNP administration was formed.

Clackmannanshire Local Election Result 2017

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	SNP	8	0	0	-	44.44	37.21	6,525	-8.84
	Labour	5	-	3	-3	27.78	27.87	4,887	-10.25
	Conservative	5	4	-	+4	27.78	24.99	4,382	+15.11
	Scottish Green	0	0	0	-	0	6.51	1,141	+6.51
	Liberal Democrats	0	0	0	-	0	3.15	553	+2.26
	Independent	0	0	1	-1	0	0.48	85	-4.57

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

Clackmannanshire West

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

Clackmannanshire West - 4 seats[3]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7
	Conservative	Darren Lee	21.4	808
	Labour	George Matchett (incumbent)	19.9	753	763.4
	SNP	Tina Margaret Murphy (incumbent)	18.6	704	705.5	705.9	717.9	722.3	766.5
	SNP	Les Sharp (incumbent)	17.8	675	675.9	676	680.1	701.2	751.5	761.4
	Labour	Craig Miller	12.6	478	482.2	488.7	505.2	541.7	590.6	591.2
	Scottish Green	Cara Quinn	4.2	159	161.4	161.6	177.4	215.9
	Liberal Democrats	Jim Hay	2.9	112	122.6	122.8	142.9
	Independent	Thomas Joshua Harrison	2.2	85	91.4	91.5
Electorate: 8,726   Valid: 3,774   Spoilt: 97   Quota: 755   Turnout: 3,871 (44.36%)

Clackmannanshire North

• 2012: 2xSNP; 1xLab; 1xIndependent
• 2017: 2xSNP; 1xLab; 1XCon
• 2012-2017 Change: 1 Independent loss and 1 Con gain

Clackmannanshire North - 4 seats[3]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7	Count 8
	Conservative	Martha Benny	24	969
	SNP	Archie Drummond (incumbent)†	16.6	672	675.5	709.8	745.3	909.8
	SNP	Donald Balsille (incumbent)	16.3	660	666.5	690.6	711.5	841.6
	Labour	Dave Clark (incumbent)	15.9	644	678.7	698.2	764.6	773.8	787.9	794.5	1,196.3
	Labour	Bobby McGill (incumbent)	10.7	432	446.7	453.8	507.7	513.7	526.4	530.2
	SNP	Helen Lewis	7.2	292	293.6	313	323.1
	Liberal Democrats	Damian Sherwood-Johnson	5.1	206	240.7	283.9
	Scottish Green	Jack Gervaise	3.8	157	167.1
Electorate: 8,371   Valid: 4,032   Spoilt: 127   Quota: 807   Turnout: 4,159 (49.68%)

Clackmannanshire Central

• 2012: 2xLab; 1xSNP
• 2017: 1xLab' 1xSNP; 1XCon
• 2012-2017 Change: 1 Lab Loss; 1 Con Gain

Clackmannanshire Central - 3 seats[3]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6
	Labour	Derek Stewart (incumbent)	32.8	846
	SNP	Phil Fairlie†††	27.7	714
	Conservative	Mike Watson	16.6	428	443.4	444.6	464.5	550.6	687.3
	SNP	Jo Wilkinson	10.5	273	281.7	337.8	393.3	438.2
	Labour	Graham Watt (incumbent)	7.1	183	321.9	324.6	356.4
	Scottish Green	John Short	5.1	133	139.1	143.7
Electorate: 6,297   Valid: 2,577   Spoilt: 79   Quota: 645   Turnout: 2,656 (42.18%)

Clackmannanshire South

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

Clackmannanshire South - 4 seats[3]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7
	SNP	Craig Holden (incumbent)	22.4	831
	Conservative	Chris Dixon††	19.6	725	726.3	759.4
	SNP	Ellen Forson (incumbent)	17.5	649	716.9	721	721.6	730	737	1000.2
	Labour	Kenneth Earle (incumbent)	17.3	640	644	665.2	817.8
	Scottish Green	Bryan Quinn	15.1	560	569.5	583.5	587	601.8	621.3
	Labour	Christine Sinclair	5.5	205	207.1	212.2	214.2
	Liberal Democrats	John Shier Biggam	2.2	84	84.3
Electorate: 8,976   Valid: 3,694   Spoilt: 86   Quota: 739   Turnout: 3,780 (42.11%)

Clackmannanshire East

• 2012: 1xCon; 1xSNP; 1xLab
• 2017: 1xCon; 1xSNP; 1xLab
• 2012-2017 Change: None

Clackmannanshire East - 3 seats[3]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4
	Conservative	Bill Mason††††	41	1452
	Labour	Kathleen Martin (incumbent)	19.9	706	839.9	868.8	882.2
	SNP	Graham Lindsay	19.5	692	699.5	724.7	1079.9
	SNP	Jane McTaggart	10.3	363	368.9	390.3
	Liberal Democrats	Anne Anderson	4.3	151	345.3	406.6	414.8
	Scottish Green	Marion Robertson	3.7	132	160.2
Electorate: 6,607   Valid: 3496   Spoilt: 40   Quota: 875   Turnout: 3,536 (53.52%)

Changes since 2017

• † Clackmannanshire North SNP Cllr Archie Drummond resigned his seat for personal reasons in late December 2017.[4] A by-election was held on 1 March 2018 and the seat was retained by the party's Helen Lewis.
• ††Clackmannanshire South Cllr Chris Dixon on 7 March 2018 resigned from the Scottish Conservative Party on health reasons and now sits as an independent councillor.[5]
• ††† Clackmannanshire Central SNP Cllr Phil Fairlie resigned his seat due to personal and professional reasons.[6] The seat was retained by the SNP's Jane McTaggart.
• †††† Clackmannanshire East Conservative Cllr Bill Mason resigned his seat due to ill-health on 31 December 2019.[7] This by-election was scheduled for 19 March but was deferred due to Coronavirus.

By-elections since 2017

Clackmannanshire North By-election (1 March 2018)[8]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5
	SNP	Helen Lewis	36.8	769	795	818	980	1,128
	Conservative	Alex Stewart	31.5	658	661	693	784
	Labour	Afifa Khanam	23.6	493	513	538
	Liberal Democrats	Damian Sherwood-Johnson	4.0	84	101
	Scottish Green	Marion Robertson	3.5	74
Electorate: 8,457   Valid: 2,078   Spoilt: 14   Quota: 1,040   Turnout: 2,092 (24.7%)

Clackmannanshire Central By-election (28 March 2019)[9]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6
	SNP	Jane McTaggart	40.9	865	872	888	902	933	1,166
	Labour	Margaret Brookes	31.9	675	684	696	702	814
	Conservative	William Marlin	19.8	419	423	433	447
	UKIP	Dawson Michie	3.3	69	70	74
	Scottish Green	Marion Robertson	2.5	53	60
	Liberal Democrats	John Biggam	1.7	36
Electorate: 6,184   Valid: 2,117   Spoilt: 29   Quota: 1,059   Turnout: (34.7%)

Clackmannanshire East By-election (19 March 2020)[10]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1
	Liberal Democrats	John Biggam
	Conservative	Denis Coyne
	Labour	Carolynne Hunter
	SNP	Stephen Leitch
	Scottish Green	Marion Robertson

References

[11]

1. "Clacks election result". Alloa and Hillfoots Advertiser. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
2. "SNP and Labour freeze out Tories in East Renfrewshire". BBC News. 19 May 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
3. "Ward results breakdown" (PDF). Clackmannanshire Council. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
4. "Councillor Drummond cites personal reason for resignation". Alloa and Hillfoots Advertiser. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
5. Business Support, Clackmannanshire Council. "Councillor Chris Dixon". www.clacks.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
6. "SNP Councillor Phil Fairlie resigns". Alloa and Hillfoots Advertiser. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
7. "Mason Resigns Seat". Alloa and Hillfoots Advertiser. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
8. http://www.clacks.gov.uk/document/5739.pdf
9. Depute Returning Officer, Clackmannanshire Council. "Clackmannanshire Central By-election election - 2019-03-28". www.clacks.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
10. https://www.clacks.gov.uk/council/noticeofpolllgbyelection2020/
11. "Clackmannanshire Council election - 2012-05-03 | ClacksWeb". Clacks.gov.uk. 3 May 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2017.