Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse is one of the nine

electoral wards The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and distri ...

East Ayrshire East Ayrshire ( sco, Aest Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir an Ear) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquart ...

Council. Created in 2007, the ward elects four councillors using 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 ...

electoral system and covers an area with a population of 17,739 people. The area is a

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) stronghold with the party holding half the seats at every election since the creation of the ward.

Boundaries

The ward was created following the Fourth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the

2007 Scottish local elections The 2007 Scottish local elections were held on 3 May 2007, the same day as Scottish Parliament elections and local elections in parts of England. All 32 Scottish councils had all their seats up for election – all Scottish councils are unitary ...

. As a result of 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 ...

, local elections in Scotland would use the

electoral system from 2007 onwards so Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse was formed from an amalgamation of several previous

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

wards. It contains all of the former Crosshouse, Gatehead and Knockentiber, Kilmarnock Central West and Grange and Howard wards as well as parts of the former Altonhill, Hillhead and Longpark, Kilmarnock Central East, Kilmarnock Central South, North New Farm Loch and Dean and

Riccarton Riccarton may refer to: New Zealand * Riccarton, New Zealand, a suburb of Christchurch ** Riccarton (New Zealand electorate), the electorate named after it ** The location of Riccarton Race Course * a locality on the Taieri Plains in Otago Scotlan ...

wards. Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse includes the westernmost part of the council area between its borders with

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 ...

and

South Ayrshire South Ayrshire ( sco, Sooth Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir a Deas, ) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland, covering the southern part of Ayrshire. It borders onto Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire. On 30 June 2 ...

and takes in the towns of

Crosshouse Crosshouse is a village in East Ayrshire about west of Kilmarnock. It grew around the cross-roads of the main Kilmarnock to Irvine road, once classified as the A71 but now reduced in status to the B7081, with a secondary road (the B751) running ...

Gatehead The village or hamlet of Gatehead is located in East Ayrshire, Parish of Kilmaurs, Scotland. It is one and a quarter miles from Crosshouse and one and a half miles from Kilmarnock. In the 18th and 19th centuries the locality was a busy coal mining ...

and

Knockentiber Knockentiber (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cnoc an Tobair'', hill of the well) is a village in East Ayrshire, Parish of Kilmaurs, Scotland. Knockentiber is west-northwest of Kilmarnock and northeast of Crosshouse. Latitude:55.6193°N Longitude:4.5455°W a ...

as well as the neighbourhoods of Hillhead, Bonnyton, Grange and Howard in

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

. Following the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the

2017 Scottish local elections The 2017 Scottish local elections were held on Thursday 4 May, in all 32 local authorities. The SNP retained its position as the largest party in terms of votes and councillors, despite suffering minor losses. The Conservatives made gains and di ...

Boundaries

Councillors

Election results

2022 election

2017 election

2012 election

2007 election

References