Elections for the Scottish district councils were held on Tuesday 7 May 1974, for both the new regional and district councils, between the two United Kingdom

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

s of

February February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years or 29 in leap years, with the 29th day being called the ''leap day''. It is the first of five months not to have 31 days (th ...

and October in that same year. These were the first elections held to the 53 district councils established by the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered local government in Scotland on 16 May 1975. The Act followed and largely implemented the report of the Royal Commission on Local Gove ...

. The Labour Party did reasonably well and the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

(SNP) did not. The councillors acted as "shadow" councils until May 1975, when the provisions of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 came into effect.

Results

National results

, - !colspan=2, Parties !Votes !Votes % !Wards , - , , 658,089 , 38.5 , 172 , - , , 488,905 , 28.6 , 112 , - , , 215,502 , 12.6 , 18 , - , , 87,333 , 5.1 , 11 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=, , style="text-align: left;" scope="row" , Independent/Other , 261,372 , 15.3 , 114/5 , - !colspan=2, Total!! !! !! Scottish District local elections, 1974

, - !colspan=2, Parties !Votes !Votes % !Wards , - , , 619,531 , 38.4 , 428 , - , , 433,287 , 26.8 , 241 , - , , 200,307 , 12.4 , 62 , - , , 80,232 , 5.0 , 17 , - , style="width: 10px" bgcolor=, , style="text-align: left;" scope="row" , Independent/Other , 280,946 , 17.5 , 345/17 , - !colspan=2, Total!! !! !! Note: Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles were governed at the district level as unitary authorities, meaning they were not included in any larger region.

Council Results

Regional Councils

District Councils

The seats on each council after the election were as follows:

=Borders

=Central

=Dumfries and Galloway

=Fife

=Grampian

=Highland

=Lothian

=Strathclyde

=Tayside

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 1974

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

May 1974 events in the United Kingdom