2017 Moray Council election

The elections to Moray Council were held on Thursday 4 May 2017, on the same day as the 31 other local authorities in Scotland. It was the third successive Local Council election to run under the STV Electoral System. The election used the eight wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with 26 Councillors being elected. Each ward elected either 3 or 4 members, using the STV electoral system.

Main article: 2017 Scottish local elections

Moray Council 2017 Election

4 May 2017 (2017-05-04)
All 26 seats to Moray Council 14 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Graham Leadbitter & Shona Morrison Tim Eagle George Alexander Party SNP Conservative Independent Leader's seat Elgin South & Fochabers Lhanbryde Buckie Forres Last election 10 seats, 34.62% 3 seats, 11.54% 10 seats, 46.2% Seats after 9 seats, 31.6% 8 seats, 36.1% 8 seats, 24.1% Seat change 1 5 2   Fourth party   Leader John Divers Party Labour Leader's seat Elgin South Last election 3 seats, 7.7% Seats after 1 seats, 4.3% Seat change 2
The 8 multi-member wards
Council Leader before election Stewart Cree Independent Council Leader after election George Alexander Independent

Following the 2017 election, a Conservative-Independent administration was formed. George Alexander (Independent) was appointed Leader of the Council while James Allan (Conservative) was appointed Convenor of the Council.

In May 2018, all but one of the Conservative councillors left the administration, leaving the independents and Convenor James Allan in a minority administration. Following negotiations with other groups, the SNP formed a minority administration in June 2018, with Graham Leadbitter taking on the role of Council Leader and Shona Morrison being appointed Convenor, the first women to take on the role in Moray Council's history.

Summary of Results

The Moray Council Elections 2017

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	SNP	9	0	1	1	34.6%	31.6%	10,518	7.8%
	Conservative	8	5	0	5	30.8%	36.1%	12,010	18.6%
	Independent	8	0	2	2	30.8%	24.1%	8,022	4.8%
	Labour	1	0	2	2	3.8%	4.3%	1,438	4.9%
	Scottish Green	0	0	0	0	0%	2.6%	853	0.2%
	Liberal Democrats	0	0	0	0	0%	1.2%	410	0.6%

Note: "Votes" are the first preference votes. The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections in 2012. This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at dissolution of Scotland's councils.

Ward Results

Speyside Glenlivet

• 2012: 2 X SNP & 1 X Independent
• 2017: 1 X SNP, 1 X Conservative & 1 X Independent [1]
• 2012-2017: Conservative gain one seat from SNP

Speyside Glenlivet - 3 Seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4
	Conservative	Walter Wilson†	35.9%	1,307
	Independent	Derek Ross	23.6%	858	1,106.5
	SNP	Louise Laing	21.3%	776	782.4	820.7	1,457.6
	SNP	Angus Anderson	19.2%	698	704.9	726.5
Electorate: 7,365   Valid: 3,639   Spoilt: 77   Quota: 910   Turnout: 3,716 (50.5%)

Keith & Cullen

• 2012: 2 X Independent & 1 X SNP
• 2017: 1 X SNP, 1 X Conservative & 1 X Independent [1]
• 2012-2017: Conservative gain one seat from Independent

Keith & Cullen - 3 Seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4
	Conservative	Donald Gatt	32.7%	1,208
	SNP	Theresa Coull	29.5%	1,088
	Independent	Ron Shepherd (incumbent)	18.02%	665	765	783	1,069
	SNP	Iain Grieve	10.2%	375	382	510	570
	Independent	Rob Barsby	9.6%	354	442	447
Electorate: 8,118   Valid: 3,690   Spoilt: 62   Quota: 923   Turnout: 3,752 (46.2%)

Buckie

• 2012: 2 X Independent & 1 X SNP
• 2017: 1 X SNP, 1 X Conservative & 1 X Independent [1]
• 2012-2017: Conservative gain one seat from Independent

Buckie - 3 seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4
	Conservative	Tim Eagle	33.8	1,060
	Independent	Gordon Cowie (incumbent)	21.4	673	826.3
	SNP	Sonya Warren (incumbent)	22.8	716	728.1	734.4	1,369.4
	SNP	Gordon McDonald (incumbent)	22.0	691	701.6	710.3
Electorate: 7,962   Valid: 3,140   Spoilt: 47   Quota: 786   Turnout: 3,187 (40%)

Fochabers Lhanbryde

• 2012: 1 X SNP, 1 X Conservative & 1 X Labour
• 2017: 2 X SNP & 1 X Conservative [1]
• 2012-2017: SNP gain one seat from Labour

Fochabers Lhanbryde - 3 seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7
	Conservative	Marc Macrae	42.7	1,747
	SNP	Shona Morrison	16.7	682	702.3	708.3	738.1	759.2	793.5	872.3
	SNP	David Bremner	17.4	711	722.2	728.6	752.4	760.3	791.9	862.3
	Independent	Ian Taylor	6.7	274	361.4	374.2	440.6	578.04	701.4
	Liberal Democrats	Donald Cameron	5.2	211	317.5	393.6	444.9	511.4
	Independent	Kenneth Gillespie	4.06	166	282.04	294.3	344.2
	Independent	Sean Morton (incumbent)	5.3	215	283.8	289.3
	Liberal Democrats	Peter Horton	2.03	83	141.8
Electorate: 8,089   Valid: 4,089   Spoilt: 71   Quota: 1,023   Turnout: 4,160 (51.4%)

Heldon & Laich

• 2012: 2 X Independent, 1 X SNP & 1 X Conservative
• 2017: 2 X Independent, 1 X SNP & 1 X Conservative [1]
• 2012-2017: No change

Heldon and Laich - 4 seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7
	Conservative	James Allan	37.9	1,953
	Independent	John Cowe (incumbent)	15.3	789	1,044.9
	SNP	Amy Patience	18.9	976	995.9	996.5	1,013.9	1,110.3
	Independent	Ryan Edwards	10.5	541	662.1	667.9	706.01	769.04	788.4	1,169.5
	Independent	Dennis Slater (incumbent)	10.2	527	657.6	662.8	692.6	760.3	778.2
	Scottish Green	James Mackessack-Leitch	4.7	240	286.8	287.8	346.8
	Liberal Democrats	John Mitchell	2.3	116	200.7	201.3
Electorate: 10,737   Valid: 5,142   Spoilt: 44   Quota: 1,029   Turnout: 5,186 (48.3%)

Elgin City North

• 2012: 2 X SNP & 1 X Labour
• 2017: 1 X SNP, 1 X Conservative & 1 X Independent [1]
• 2012-2017: Conservative & Independent each gain one seat from SNP & Labour

Elgin City North - 3 seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6
	Conservative	Frank Brown	32.9	1,181
	Independent	Sandy Cooper†	14.9	532	605.9	767.2	932.5
	SNP	Paula Coy	17.7	634	639.3	671.5	713.7	719.5	1,278.9
	SNP	Patsy Gowans (incumbent)	15	537	539.7	556.6	630.4	633.8
	Labour	Nick Taylor	11.9	429	477.2	535.9
	Independent	Billy Adams	7.4	266	338.9
Electorate: 9,237   Valid: 3,579   Spoilt: 65   Quota: 895   Turnout: 3,644 (39.5%)

Elgin City South

• 2012: 1 X SNP, 1 X Conservative & 1 X Labour
• 2017: 1 X SNP, 1 X Conservative & 1 X Labour
• 2012-2017: No change

Elgin City South - 3 Seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2
	Conservative	Ray McLean	35.9	1,460
	SNP	Graham Leadbitter (incumbent)	30.7	1,245
	Labour	John Divers (incumbent)	24.8	1,009	1,126
	Independent	Sean Malone	8.5	347	531
Electorate: 9,551   Valid: 4,061   Spoilt: 42   Quota: 1,016   Turnout: 4,103 (43%)

Forres

• 2012: 3 X Independent & 1 X SNP
• 2017: 2 X Independent, 1 X SNP & 1 X Conservative [1]
• 2012-2017: Conservative gain from Independent

Forres - 4 seats
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6	Count 7
	Conservative	Claire Feaver	35.4	2,094
	SNP	Aaron McLean (incumbent)	23.5	1,389
	Independent	George Alexander (incumbent)	16.6	981	1,247.3
	Independent	Lorna Creswell (incumbent)	9.4	555	738.6	779.08	814.9	840.5	1,015.2	1,504.6
	Scottish Green	Fabio Villani	10.4	613	671.3	767.4	773.2	777.9	834.9
	Independent	Jeff Hamilton	4.1	243	334.8	349.3	359.5	380.7
	Independent	Terry Monaghan	0.61	36	54.3	59.8	62.3
Electorate: 12,116   Valid: 5,911   Spoilt: 47   Quota: 1,183   Turnout: 5,958 (49.2%)

Changes since 2017

• † On 10 May 2017, Elgin City North Independent Cllr Sandy Cooper resigned his seat less than a week after being elected in the 2017 elections. A by-election took place on 13 July 2017.[2] The seat was won by Conservative candidate, Maria Mclean.
• †† On 21 October 2017, Speyside Glenlivet Conservative Cllr Walter Wilson resigned from the party group following disagreements with colleagues in the party group. He now sits as an Independent.[3]
• ††† On 24 October 2019 Keith and Cullen Independent Cllr Ron Shepherd retired due to ill-health.[4] A by-election was held on 21 November 2019 and it was won by the Conservative's Laura Powell.

By-elections since 2017

Elgin City North By-election (13 July 2017)
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3
	Conservative	Maria McLean	40.0	923	970	1,061
	SNP	Patsy Gowans	38.8	895	904	994
	Labour	Nick Taylor	15.8	365	389
	Independent	Terry Monaghan	5.4	124
Electorate: 9,354   Valid: 2,307   Spoilt: 17   Quota: 1153.5   Turnout: 2,324 (24.8%)

Keith and Cullen By-election (21 November 2019)
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3
	Conservative	Laura Powell	41.5	1,142	1,177	1,339
	SNP	Jock McKay	38.1	1,047	1,077	1,184
	Independent	Rob Barsby	12.7	349	430
	Liberal Democrats	Ian Aitchison	7.7	212
Electorate: 8,191   Valid: 2,778   Spoilt: 28   Quota: 1,376   Turnout: 2,750 (33.9%)

References

1. "Moray Council Election Results 2017". Moray.gov. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
2. https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/councillor-steps-less-week-job/
3. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-42064379
4. https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/end-of-an-era-as-shepherd-calls-it-a-day-183372/

External links

• of Candidates Council candidates 2017