Inverclyde Council is one of the 32

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. Created in 1995, its administrative centre is based in

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

and its territory covers the area of

Inverclyde Inverclyde ( sco, Inerclyde, gd, Inbhir Chluaidh, , "mouth of the Clyde") is one of 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Together with the East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire council areas, Inverclyde forms part of the histo ...

in the west of Scotland, taking over from the

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

of the same name and area which existed under the larger

Strathclyde Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

, which was established in 1975. Prior to that, the territory was part of the historic county of

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Renfr ...

History

The council gained national notoriety in 2005 following harsh criticism from the Accounts Commission regarding poor leadership and accountability. In November 2005 the council was given a 6-month deadline to reorganise and improve further, following the resignation of the council chief in September and organisational changes in the wake of the original report. Following this criticism, the Chief Executive of Inverclyde Council Robert Cleary stepped down and a new chief executive John Mundell was appointed. The position of Chief Executive commands an annual salary of £112,000. There was criticism over the benefits the outgoing chief executive received on leaving—he was given a six-figure severance payment and his pension will be approximately £50,000 per annum. In June 2006, changes were still ongoing: Inverclyde Council altered its directorship structure by adding new corporate director positions and removing senior manager positions. It was expected that the £90,000 a year posts will mostly be filled by new applicants, although existing Council workers were able to apply. There was some criticism with regards to the merging of council services; for instance, Education and Social Work merged and now share the same director. This was frowned upon as at the time the Director responsible for the two merged departments had an educational qualification, not a social work one. Until 2006, Inverclyde was the only authority in the United Kingdom not to have named electoral

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

: whilst the local authority reserved its right to name wards, it failed to supply any to the Local Government Boundary Commission. This was rectified in the 2006 review; however, the six multi-member wards created for the 2007 elections used only vague geographical descriptions ('Inverclyde North', 'Inverclyde East', 'Inverclyde South West' etc.), in contrast to the majority of names for such wards introduced at the same time across the country. The 2007 council elections took place at the same time as the Scottish Parliament elections. The Liberal Democrats lost nine seats; Labour gained two but fell short of a majority. The SNP and Conservatives both entered the council with five seats and one seat respectively, while an independent candidate also won a place. In 2014, one of the Labour councillors, Vaughan Jones, became an independent member after announcing support for Scottish independence.

Composition

Following the Council elections of

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

, the current composition of Inverclyde Council is: The election resulted in no overall control of the council.

Wards

Six multi-member wards (20 seats) were created for the 2007 election, replacing 20 single-member wards which had been in place since the 1980s. The representation was increased to 22 councillors across 7 seats for the 2017 election:

References

{{Scotland subdivisions Politics of Inverclyde Local authorities of Scotland Organisations based in Inverclyde Greenock