Elections to The Highland Council were held on 5 May 2022, the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. The election used the 21 wards created under the

Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 The Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 (asp 9) is an Act of the Scottish Parliament which provided, amongst other things, for the election of councillors to the local authorities in Scotland by the single transferable vote system. The Commissi ...

, with 74 councillors being elected. Each ward elected either 3 or 4 members, using the STV electoral system. New ward boundaries were proposed by

Boundaries Scotland Boundaries Scotland is an independent body in Scotland created as the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. According to its website, it is responsible for: carrying out reviews of boun ...

in 2021 which would have reduced the total number of councillors to 73; however these were rejected by the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...

. At the previous election in

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, independent councillors won the most seats and formed a coalition administration with the Labour and Liberal Democrat groups.

Background

Composition

Since the previous election, there were several changes in the composition of the council. A number were changes to the political affiliation of councillors, including SNP councillors Calum MacLeod, Maxine Smith, Pauline Munro and Liz MacDonald who resigned from the party to become independents and independent councillor Donnie Mackay who resigned from the independent administration to join the Conservatives. Independent councillor Andrew Baxter was removed from the independent administration and initially continued under the designation "Real Independent" before joining the Conservatives. SNP councillor Ken Gowans resigned from the party to become an independent in 2017 before subsequently rejoining the party the following year. In total, nine by-elections were held and resulted in an independent gain from the Liberal Democrats, a Liberal Democrats gain from the SNP, an SNP gain from the Liberal Democrats, an SNP hold, an independent hold, an independent gain from the Conservatives, two Liberal Democrats gains from independents and an SNP gain from the Conservatives. Independent councillor Ben Thompson resigned from the council in November 2021 and Tom Heggie, also an independent councillor, died in February 2022 which left vacancies on the council which would not be filled as they occurred less than six months before the election. ;Notes

Retiring councillors

Of the 72 sitting councillors before the election, 30 did not stand for re-election. Additionally, four councillors contested different wards from the ones they previously represented. With four sitting councillors defeated at the polls, only 38 sitting councillors were re-elected in 2022.

Proposed boundary changes

Following the passing of the

Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 Acts of the Scottish Parliament Additionally, the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 21 March 2018 but was referred to, and struck down by, the Supreme Court due t ...

, a review of the boundaries was undertaken in

North Ayrshire North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and so ...

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

Orkney Islands Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

Shetland Islands Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

and

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (, for, , Scottish Gaelic, Council of the Western Isles) is the local government council for ''Na h-Eileanan Siar'' (the Outer Hebrides) council area of Scotland.

. The Act allowed single- or two-member wards to be created to provide better representation of island communities. New ward boundaries were proposed by

in 2021 which would have reduced the number of wards by one to 20 and the number of councillors by one to 73. The proposals would have made no changes to the boundaries or numbers of councillors in

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; Fort William and Ardnamurchan; Nairn and Cawdor and Thurso and North West Caithness. The boundaries in Eilean a' Cheò and North, West and Central Sutherland would have remained the same but the numbers of councillors would have been reduced from four to three and from three to two respectively. Further changes would have seen four new wards created in

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

, with the total number of councillors representing the city rising from 16 to 18 while Caol and Mallaig would have been renamed Caol, Mallaig and the Small Isles to recognise the island communities within the ward. Boundaries Scotland said the changes would "create more recognisable ward boundaries by Inverness, Tain and Knoydart" and "better align with the historical Caithness–Sutherland county boundary". However, the proposals in Highland were rejected by the

and the 21 wards created under the

remained in place.

Uncontested seats

After nominations closed on 30 March 2022, there were not enough candidates in Caol and Mallaig to require an election: three candidates stood for the three seats available. As a result,

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

candidate Andrew Baldrey, Liberal Democrats candidate John Colin Grafton and Conservative candidate Liz Saggers were elected without a poll. This was one of a number of uncontested wards across Scotland, with a total of 18 councillors automatically elected. Despite their candidate being elected without a poll, the lack of interest in standing for election was called a "threat to local democracy" by the Greens. During the 2017 local elections in Scotland, just three council wards were uncontested, but votes were held in every ward in both

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

– the first elections to use multi-member wards and the

Single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

. Public disinterest in standing for election to local councils has been linked to the "ridiculous" size of some local authorities and the low pay councillors receive for their work.

Results

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 4 May 2017. This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at dissolution of Scotland's councils.

Ward summary

, - class="unsortable" align="centre" !rowspan=2 align="left", Ward ! %
!Cllrs
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!rowspan=2, Total
Cllrs
, - class="unsortable" align="center" !colspan=2 bgcolor="", SNP !colspan=2 bgcolor="", Ind !colspan=2 bgcolor="", Lib Dem !colspan=2 bgcolor="", Conservative !colspan=2 bgcolor="", Green !colspan=2 bgcolor="", Lab !colspan=2 bgcolor="white", Others , - , align="left", North, West and Central Sutherland , bgcolor="" , 35.1 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 17.3 , 1 , 28.1 , 1 , 11.0 , 0 , colspan="2" rowspan="5" , 3.9 , 0 , 4.6 , 0 , 3 , - , align="left", Thurso and North West Caithness , 18.4 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 36.2 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 27.5 , 1 , 17.9 , 1 , colspan="2" , colspan="2" rowspan="2" , 4 , - , align="left", Wick and East Caithness , 25.3 , 1 , 23.3 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 29.8 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 15.1 , 1 , 6.5 , 0 , 4 , - , align="left", East Sutherland and Edderton , 26.5 , 1 , 19.0 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 35.8 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 17.0 , 0 , colspan="2" rowspan="2" , 1.6 , 0 , 3 , - , align="left", Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh , bgcolor="" , 41.1 , bgcolor="" , 2 , 28.7 , 1 , 12.9 , 0 , 17.3 , 1 , colspan="2" rowspan="5" , 4 , - , align="left",

, 29.1 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 29.2 , bgcolor="" , 2 , 27.9 , 1 , 6.7 , 0 , 2.9 , 0 , 4.2 , 0 , 4 , - , align="left", Tain and Easter Ross , 30.6 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 37.3 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 21.5 , 1 , 10.6 , 0 , colspan="2" , colspan="2" , 3 , - , align="left", Dingwall and Seaforth , bgcolor="" , 32.2 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 28.0 , 2 , 16.7 , 1 , 14.0 , 0 , 4.5 , 0 , 4.7 , 0 , 4 , - , align="left",

Black Isle The Black Isle ( gd, an t-Eilean Dubh, ) is a peninsula within Ross and Cromarty, in the Scottish Highlands. It includes the towns of Cromarty and Fortrose, and the villages of Culbokie, Jemimaville, Rosemarkie, Avoch, Munlochy, Tore, and Nor ...

, 24.9 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 26.3 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 15.7 , 1 , 14.8 , 0 , 13.3 , 0 , 5.2 , 0 , 3 , - , align="left", Eilean a' Cheò , 22.6 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 56.1 , bgcolor="" , 2 , 3.5 , 0 , 10.7 , 1 , colspan="2" , 3.5 , 0 , 3.7 , 0 , 4 , - , align="left", Caol and Mallaig , colspan=5 align="center" , 1 , , 1 , , 1 , colspan=4 , 3 , - , align="left", Aird and Loch Ness , 26.2 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 31.0 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 6.6 , 0 , 21.1 , 1 , 10.2 , 1 , 4.9 , 0 , colspan="2" , 4 , - , align="left", Inverness West , 31.2 , 1 , 8.1 , 0 , bgcolor="" , 34.2 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 9.3 , 0 , 7.5 , 1 , 8.4 , 0 , 1.3 , 0 , 3 , - , align="left", Inverness Central , bgcolor="" , 41.3 , bgcolor="" , 2 , 5.1 , 0 , 6.4 , 0 , 12.8 , 0 , 7.5 , 0 , 24.1 , 1 , 2.8 , 0 , 3 , - , align="left", Inverness Ness-side , 29.2 , 1 , 5.6 , 0 , bgcolor="" , 44.5 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 8.7 , 0 , 5.2 , 0 , 6.4 , 1 , 0.4 , 0 , 3 , - , align="left", Inverness Millburn , bgcolor="" , 40.8 , bgcolor="" , 1 , colspan="2" , 23.8 , 1 , 21.6 , 1 , colspan="2" rowspan="3" , 13.9 , 0 , colspan="2" , 3 , - , align="left", Culloden and Ardersier , bgcolor="" , 37.6 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 15.9 , 1 , 15.3 , 1 , 17.9 , 0 , 10.1 , 0 , 3.3 , 0 , 3 , - , align="left", Nairn and Cawdor , 27.2 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 43.9 , bgcolor="" , 2 , 10.5 , 0 , 16.2 , 1 , colspan="2" , 2.2 , 0 , 4 , - , align="left", Inverness South , bgcolor="" , 35.2 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 24.8 , 1 , 8.6 , 1 , 16.9 , 1 , 5.4 , 0 , 7.3 , 0 , 1.9 , 0 , 4 , - , align="left",

Badenoch and Strathspey Badenoch and Strathspey is a former district of Highland region, Scotland. The district was created under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 as one of the eight districts of the Highland region. The same legislation abolished countie ...

, 22.7 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 38.4 , bgcolor="" , 2 , 8.8 , 0 , 15.6 , 1 , 10.3 , 0 , 4.2 , 0 , colspan="2" rowspan="2" , 4 , - , align="left", Fort William and Ardnamurchan , 33.5 , 1 , 9.3 , 1 , bgcolor="" , 37.5 , bgcolor="" , 1 , 10.1 , 0 , 9.6 , 1 , colspan="2" , 4 , - class="unsortable" class="sortbottom" !align="left", Total !30.1 !22 !25.6 !21 !19.7 !15 !14.6 !10 !4.0 !4 !5.0 !2 !1.0 !0 !74

Ward results

North, West and Central Sutherland

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent

Thurso and North West Caithness

*2017: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Conservative *Pre-election: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Conservative *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent

Wick and East Caithness

*2017: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Conservative *Pre-election: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent

East Sutherland and Edderton

*2017: 1 Lib Dem; 1 Labour; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 1 Lib Dem; 1 Labour; 1 Independent *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent

Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 2 SNP; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent *2022: 2 SNP; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent

Cromarty Firth

*2017: 2 SNP; 2 Independent *Pre-election: 4 Independent *2022: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem

Tain and Easter Ross

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 2 Independent; 1 SNP *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent

Dingwall and Seaforth

*2017: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem *Pre-election: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem *2022: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem

Black Isle

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent

Eilean a' Cheò

*2017: 3 Independent; 1 SNP *Pre-election: 4 Independent *2022: 2 Independent: 1 SNP; 1 Conservative

Caol and Mallaig

*2017: 2 Independent; 1 SNP *Pre-election: 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent; 1 Vacant *2022: 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative; 1 Green

Aird and Loch Ness

*2017: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Conservative *Pre-election: 3 Independent; 1 SNP *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Conservative; 1 Green; 1 Independent

Inverness West

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 2 Lib Dem; 1 SNP *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Green

Inverness Central

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Labour; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 1 SNP; 1 Labour; 1 Independent *2022: 2 SNP; 1 Labour

Inverness Ness-side

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative *Pre-election: 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Labour

Inverness Millburn

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Labour; 1 Conservative *Pre-election: 1 SNP; 1 Labour; 1 Conservative *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative

Culloden and Ardersier

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Independent

Nairn and Cawdor

*2017: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Conservative *Pre-election: 3 Independent; 1 Conservative *2022: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Conservative

Inverness South

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent

Badenoch and Strathspey

*2017: 1 SNP; 1 Conservative; 1 Green; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 1 SNP; 1 Conservative; 1 Green; 1 Independent *2022: 2 Independent; 1 SNP; 1 Conservative

Fort William and Ardnamurchan

*2017: 2 SNP; 1 Conservative; 1 Independent *Pre-election: 3 SNP; 1 Conservative *2022: 1 SNP; 1 Lib Dem; 1 Green; 1 Independent

Notes

Footnotes

References

{{2022 United Kingdom local elections Highland Council elections