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1980 Kilmarnock and Loudoun District Council election

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1980 Kilmarnock and Loudoun District Council election
← 1977 1 May 1980 (1980-05-01) 1984 →
All 16 seats to Kilmarnock and Loudoun District Council
9 seats needed for a majority
Registered61,563
Turnout48.6%
  First party Second party
 
Lab
Con
Leader John Anderson Alan MacDougal
Party Labour Conservative
Leader's seat Ward 8 (defeated) Ward 13
Last election 7 seats, 38.6% 7 seats, 32.2%
Seats won 11 5
Seat change Increase 4 Decrease 2
Popular vote 16,882 7,639
Percentage 56.5% 25.6%
Swing Increase 19.9 Decrease 6.6
Council Leader before election


Conservative

Council Leader after election


Labour

Elections to Kilmarnock and Loudoun District Council were held on 1 May 1980, on the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. This was the third election to the district council following the local government reforms in the 1970s.

The election was the last to use the original 16 wards created by the Formation Electoral Arrangements in 1974. Each ward elected one councillor using first-past-the-post voting.[1] Following the Initial Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements in 1981, several wards were changed or abolished and the number of wards was increased.[2]

Labour gained overall control of the district council after winning 11 of the 16 seats as the party increased their vote share by nearly 20% and took more than half of the popular vote. The previous election in 1977 had resulted in no overall control after Labour and the Conservatives were tied with seven seats each. The Conservatives were the second-largest party after they retained five of their seven seats. The Scottish National Party (SNP), who had won two seats in 1977, lost both of their seats.

Background

[edit]

Supported by the two SNP councillors, the Conservatives had run Kilmarnock and Loudon as a minority since the previous election in 1977[3] while, at Westminster, the party had taken over from Labour following the 1979 general election.

Ahead of the 1980 election, the Conservatives campaigned to continue on with their "winning team". Their manifesto was entitled "Passport to Prosperity" and highlighted their support for the Right to Buy policy, a pledge to build new swimming baths and their support for small businesses at the newly established industrial estate in Bonnyton.[3]

Labour's campaign focused on the Thatcher government at Westminster which was unpopular in Scotland with their election literature headed "Tory Rule Not OK". They pledged to modernise the council's housing stock, provide leisure facilities for the whole family and introduce a more creative job opportunity scheme in response to raising unemployment.[3]

The SNP campaigned on a perceived "criminal" wasting of money within local government claiming that while rents and rates had increased dramatically since the local government reforms in 1974, ratepayers were instead funding "pleasure trips" for councillors in relation to town twinning.[4]

Results

[edit]
1980 Kilmarnock and Loudoun District Council election result
Party Seats Gains Losses Net gain/loss Seats % Votes % Votes +/−
  Labour 11 4 0 Increase 4 68.8 56.5 16,882 Increase 19.9
  Conservative 5 0 2 Decrease 2 31.2 25.6 7,639 Decrease 6.6
  SNP 0 0 2 Decrease 2 0.0 16.1 4,797 Decrease 9.7
  Liberal 0 0 0 Steady 0.0 1.9 559 Decrease 0.5
Total 16 29,877

Source:[5][6]

Ward results

[edit]

Ward 1

[edit]
Ward 1
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Houston Sim 1,238 50.4 Increase 14.5
SNP Robert Brown 1,207 49.2 Increase 3.9
Majority 31 1.2 N/A
Turnout 2,445 52.8 Decrease 1.7
Registered electors 4,654
Labour gain from SNP Swing Increase 5.3

Source:[5][6]

Ward 2

[edit]
Ward 2
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Robert Creighton 1,226 70.4 Increase 9.7
SNP Patricia Gibson 284 16.3 New
Liberal Peter Kerr 226 13.0 Decrease 26.3
Majority 942 54.1 Increase 32.7
Turnout 1,736 47.5 Increase 4.8
Registered electors 3,662
Labour hold Swing Increase 18.0

Source:[5][6]

Ward 3

[edit]
Ward 3
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John Hunter 1,166 79.3 Increase 34.4
Conservative Elizabeth Walker 303 20.6 Decrease 0.2
Majority 863 58.7 Increase 48.1
Turnout 1,469 38.1 Decrease 10.7
Registered electors 3,858
Labour hold Swing Increase 34.3

Source:[5][6]

Ward 4

[edit]
Ward 4
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Angus Steele 838 43.6 Increase 20.0
Conservative Robert Ledgerwood 751 39.1 Increase 1.0
Liberal Anne Dick 333 17.3 Increase 12.0
Majority 87 4.5 N/A
Turnout 1,922 45.7 Decrease 6.0
Registered electors 4,207
Labour gain from Conservative Swing Increase 9.5

Source:[5][6]

Ward 5

[edit]
Ward 5
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour John McCrae 1,372 71.0 Increase 18.9
SNP Charles Calman 556 28.8 Decrease 19.1
Majority 816 42.2 Increase 38.0
Turnout 1,928 48.9 Decrease 2.7
Registered electors 3,950
Labour hold Swing Increase 19.0

Source:[5][6]

Ward 6

[edit]
Ward 6
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Margaret Parker 1,121 61.1 Increase 4.6
Labour William McCulloch 713 38.8 Increase 20.1
Majority 408 22.3 Decrease 9.4
Turnout 1,834 55.1 Decrease 6.9
Registered electors 3,333
Conservative hold Swing Decrease 7.7

Source:[5][6]

Ward 7

[edit]
Ward 7
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James O'Neil 1,280 56.6 Increase 28.6
Conservative John Porter 976 43.2 Increase 7.3
Majority 304 13.4 N/A
Turnout 2,256 53.1 Decrease 4.9
Registered electors 4,259
Labour gain from Conservative Swing Increase 10.6

Source:[5][6]

Ward 8

[edit]
Ward 8
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Mary Porter 1,173 70.1 Decrease 10.8
Labour John Anderson 497 29.7 Increase 10.6
Majority 676 40.4 Decrease 21.4
Turnout 1,670 46.4 Decrease 2.3
Registered electors 3,602
Conservative hold Swing Decrease 10.7

Source:[5][6]

Ward 9

[edit]
Ward 9
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Maisie Garven 1,449 78.4 Increase 36.7
SNP Gordon Gibson 393 21.3 Decrease 19.7
Majority 1,056 57.1 Increase 56.4
Turnout 1,842 44.0 Decrease 6.8
Registered electors 4,207
Labour hold Swing Increase 28.2

Source:[5][6]

Ward 10

[edit]
Ward 10
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Thomas Ferguson 1,274 59.7 Increase 20.3
SNP Leslie Flannigan 854 40.0 Decrease 3.8
Majority 420 19.7 N/A
Turnout 2,128 47.4 Decrease 0.7
Registered electors 4,503
Labour gain from SNP Swing Increase 12.0

Source:[5][6]

Ward 11

[edit]
Ward 11
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative James Thomson 750 70.1 Decrease 15.6
Labour John Wilson 314 29.3 Increase 15.0
Majority 436 40.8 Decrease 30.6
Turnout 1,064 37.7 Decrease 15.2
Registered electors 2,836
Conservative hold Swing Decrease 15.3

Source:[5][6]

Ward 12

[edit]
Ward 12
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Andrew Nisbet 1,610 86.5 Increase 10.4
Conservative James Mundell 245 13.2 Decrease 10.7
Majority 1,365 73.3 Increase 21.1
Turnout 1,855 45.4 Increase 4.7
Registered electors 4,096
Labour hold Swing Increase 10.5

Source:[5][6]

Ward 13

[edit]
Ward 13
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Alan MacDougall 833 33.9 Decrease 1.3
Labour Annie Lochhead 818 33.3 Increase 6.4
SNP William Lamond 801 32.6 Decrease 0.5
Majority 15 0.6 Decrease 1.5
Turnout 2,452 54.1 Decrease 9.5
Registered electors 4,536
Conservative hold Swing Decrease 3.8

Source:[5][6]

Ward 14

[edit]
Ward 14
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James Mills 1,551 75.5 Increase 11.4
Conservative Archibald Wight 339 16.5 Decrease 19.4
SNP James Morrison 162 7.9 New
Majority 1,212 59.0 Increase 30.8
Turnout 2,052 47.4 Increase 7.3
Registered electors 4,331
Labour hold Swing Increase 15.4

Source:[5][6]

Ward 15

[edit]
Ward 15
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Trevor Whale 755 45.5 Increase 9.1
Labour James McChristie 598 36.0 Increase 3.2
SNP James Mair 306 18.4 Decrease 12.4
Majority 157 9.5 Increase 5.9
Turnout 1,659 56.7 Increase 0.8
Registered electors 2,928
Conservative hold Swing Increase 2.9

Source:[5][6]

Ward 16

[edit]
Ward 16
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James Anderson 938 59.9 Increase 0.4
Conservative James Barclay-Gall 393 25.1 Decrease 15.4
SNP Alexander Young 234 14.9 New
Majority 545 34.8 Increase 15.8
Turnout 1,565 60.2 Increase 8.6
Registered electors 2,601
Labour hold Swing Increase 7.9

Source:[5][6]

Aftermath

[edit]

Labour regained control of the district council from the minority Conservative administration which had been in power since the previous election in 1977. Cllr Andrew Nisbet was elected as Provost following the first meeting of the new council.[7]

The result reflected a "strong anti-Tory trend" across Scotland according to Conservative group leader Cllr Alan MacDougal while former SNP councillor Leslie Flannigan blamed the Thatcher government for the party's losses as they were caught "in the middle of a shift from Tory to Labour".[8]

By-elections

[edit]

Ward 9

[edit]

Ward 9 Labour councillor Maisie Garven died on 16 November 1980 and a by-election, held on 12 February 1981, was won by Labour's Robert Stirling.[9][10]

Ward 9 by-election, 12 February 1981
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Robert Stirling 1,269 71.9 Decrease 6.5
SNP Charles Calman 351 19.9 Decrease 1.4
Conservative Elizabeth Walker 110 6.2 New
Scottish Movement Progressive Party Gordon Walker 36 2.0 New
Majority 918 52.0 Decrease 5.1
Turnout 1,766 42.0 Decrease 2.0
Registered electors 4,204
Labour hold Swing Decrease 2.5

Source:[10]

Ward 2

[edit]

Labour group leader and Ward 2 councillor Robert Creighton died suddenly on 18 August 1982 and a by-election, held on 11 November, was won by Labour's James Campbell.[11][12]

Ward 2 by-election, 11 November 1982
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour James Campbell 792 63.2 Decrease 7.2
SNP Danny Coffey 460 36.7 Increase 20.4
Majority 332 26.5 Decrease 27.6
Turnout 1,254 35.1 Decrease 12.4
Registered electors 3,584
Labour hold Swing Decrease 13.8

Source:[12][13]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Formation Electoral Arrangements". Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  2. ^ "Initial Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements". Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Milligan, Alex (25 April 1980). "Three-year intrigue coming to an end". Kilmarnock Standard. Kilmarnock. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ Milligan, Alex (25 April 1980). "Three-year intrigue coming to an end". Kilmarnock Standard. Kilmarnock. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Botchel, J. M.; Denver, D. T. (1980). The Scottish District Elections 1980: Results and Statistics (PDF). Dundee: Election Studies, University of Dundee. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Botchel, J. M.; Denver, D. T. (1977). The Scottish District Elections 1977: Results and Statistics (PDF). Dundee: Election Studies, University of Dundee. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  7. ^ "Andrew Nisbet takes chair". Kilmarnock Standard. Kilmarnock. 9 May 1980. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ^ Hossack, Margaret (16 May 1980). "Mixed reaction at Labour win". Kilmarnock Standard. Kilmarnock. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Death of councillor Mrs Maisie Garven". Kilmarnock Standard. Kilmarnock. 21 November 1980. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ^ a b "Death of councillor Mrs Maisie Garven". Kilmarnock Standard. Kilmarnock. 21 November 1980. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. ^ "Councillor's death a 'tragic loss'". Kilmarnock Standard. Kilmarnock. 10 September 1982. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^ a b "Labour's Jimmy wins the ward". Kilmarnock Standard. Kilmarnock. 19 November 1982. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ^ "Campbell and Coffey: Labour faces SNP challenge". Kilmarnock Standard. Kilmarnock. 12 November 1982. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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