East Dunbartonshire

East Dunbartonshire ( sco, Aest Dunbartanshire; gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Bhreatainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north of Glasgow and contains many of the affluent areas to the north of the city, including Bearsden, Milngavie, Milton Of Campsie, Balmore and Torrance, as well as many of the city's commuter towns and villages. East Dunbartonshire also shares borders with North Lanarkshire, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire. The council area covers parts of the historic counties of Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire.

The council area was formed in 1996, as a result of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, from the former Bearsden and Milngavie district and most of the former Strathkelvin district (all areas except Chryston and Auchinloch, which became part of North Lanarkshire council area), within the wider Strathclyde region.

Demographics

East Dunbartonshire council area has low levels of deprivation, with relatively low unemployment and low levels of crime. The population is both declining and ageing.

In a 2007 Reader's Digest poll, East Dunbartonshire was voted the best place in Britain to raise a family. The area continually tops the Halifax Bank Quality of Life list. In 2010 East Dunbartonshire ranked 3rd in Scotland and was the only Scottish area in the British Top 20 in 2008 A Legatum Prosperity Index published by the Legatum Institute in October 2016 showed East Dunbartonshire as the most prosperous council area in Scotland and the ninth most prosperous in the United Kingdom.

Political composition

1995-1999

At the first election to East Dunbartonshire Council in April 1995, 26 councillors were elected for a four-year term. Labour gained an outright majority and formed a single-party administration, headed by Charles Kennedy and Michael McCarron as leader and depute leader, with John Dempsey and Ann Cameron taking the civic posts of Provost and Depute Provost. Cllr Kennedy was the then leader of Strathkelvin District Council, and continued to hold that post during the shadow year of East Dunbartonshire until the final abolition of the district council in April 1996.

The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives were the only other parties represented on East Dunbartonshire Council and sat in opposition for the next four years.

1999-2003

The number of councillors was reduced to 24 at the May 1999 election, when the Labour Party was again returned as the largest group, but without an overall majority. At the statutory meeting, Charles Kennedy and Rhondda Geekie were appointed as leader and depute leader of a minority Labour administration, but the Provost and Depute Provost roles were taken by Lib Dem councillor Robin McSkimming and Conservative councillor Anne Jarvis. Within a few months, the Labour administration fell, and with support from the Conservatives, the Lib Dem councillors Keith Moody and John Morrison took over as leader and depute leader of a new administration in which members of both the Lib Dem and Conservative groups held the various convenerships.

2003-2007

At the May 2003 election, the Liberal Democrats further increased their representation on the council, securing 12 out of the 24 seats. With the reduced Labour group declining to put forward nominations, Lib Dem councillors Pat Steel and Cathy McInnes became Provost and Depute Provost, and John Morrison and Fiona Risk leader and depute leader. For the next four years the Lib Dems ran a single party administration that relied, when necessary, on the casting vote of the chair. June 2004 saw the emergence of the East Dunbartonshire Independent Alliance, when Jack Young and former council leader Charles Kennedy, who had been elected as Labour councillors the previous year, formed a fourth group on East Dunbartonshire Council.

2007-2012

As a result of the 2007 election, the Scottish Liberal Democrats were reduced to three councillors and lost control of East Dunbartonshire Council, with one of the primary grievances amongst the electorate being fortnightly waste collection, after the introduction of kerbside collections for recycling plastics, glass, metals and paper. Although the SNP were elected as the largest group (winning their first ever councillors on East Dunbartonshire Council), the administration became a Labour/Conservative coalition due to no single party having overall control.

The leader of the council was Labour councillor Rhondda Geekie and the provost was Labour councillor Alex Hannah. The depute leader and depute provost were the Conservative councillors Billy Hendry and Anne Jarvis. When Provost Hannah died in April 2009, his seat was held by Labour's Alan Moir, although he was succeeded as provost by Lib Dem councillor Eric Gotts.

In December 2009, Lib Dem representation increased briefly to 4, following Ashay Ghai's win in the Bearsden South by-election caused by the resignation of the Conservatives' Simon Hutchison. However, their numbers reverted to 3 in June 2011, when Lib Dem councillor Duncan Cumming resigned from the party citing issues relating to the Liberal Democrats' role in the UK coalition government, sitting thereafter as an independent.

2012-2017

The 2012 election again returned a council where no single party had overall control, and the administration became a three-way Labour/Lib-Dem/Conservative coalition. The leader of the council remained Rhondda Geekie, but Labour councillor Una Walker became provost. The depute leader and depute provost were the Lib Dem councillor Ashay Ghai and the Conservative councillor Anne Jarvis.

EDIA councillor Charles Kennedy, of the Campsie and Kirkintilloch North ward, died on 13 July 2012, and the subsequent by-election took place on 13 September, when Gemma Welsh (Scottish Labour) was elected. Thereafter the EDIA was voluntarily deregistered, its remaining councillor, Jack Young, continuing as an independent for the remainder of his term, finally retiring from the council in May 2017.

Following a disagreement between the Liberal Democrats and their administration colleagues, the ruling three-party coalition reverted to a minority two-party Labour/Conservative coalition in January 2016, and the Conservatives' Billy Hendry resumed the role of depute council leader.

2017-2022

The number of seats on the local council was reduced to 22 at the 2017 election, where a number of long-standing councillors from all parties announced their intention to stand down. No single party gained overall control, the SNP being elected as the largest group with 7 members. The Conservatives gained their highest ever number of councillors with 6, equaling the LibDems, who doubled their representation, while Labour were reduced to 2. Labour's Rhondda Geekie, leader of the council since 2007, and Ian Mackay, the SNP Group Leader, lost their seats.

Following the election, the Conservative and LibDem groups, who together formed a majority on the council, combined to secure the civic offices and various external appointments, the position of Provost being filled by Conservative Councillor Alan Brown and Depute Provost by LibDem Councillor Gary Pews. However, with the 2017 general election just weeks away, the two groups abstained on each other's nominations for the political posts, allowing the SNP to form a minority administration with Cllr Gordan Low as Leader and Cllr Gillian Renwick as Depute.

Thereafter, the Conservative and LibDem groups continued to vote together, and matters came to a head when a revised redundancy policy was pushed through against the opposition of the SNP administration. After a motion by the council leader calling for the policy to be withdrawn was rejected by Conservative and LibDem councillors, the administration stood down on 21 December 2017.

For the next few months the council functioned without an official administration, and then on 20 March 2018 Conservative Leader Councillor Andrew Polson and Lib Dem Leader Vaughan Moody were elected as Co-Leaders of the new Joint Administration, a first in East Dunbartonshire. Shortly thereafter the new redundancy policy was suspended in the face of potential industrial action.

Provost Brown died suddenly in November 2021, and was succeeded as provost by his depute, Cllr Pews. However, due to the proximity of the May 2022 council elections, both the former Provost's seat and the Depute Provost's position were left unfilled for the remainder of the council term. In January 2022, Cllr Sheila Mechan announced her resignation from the Conservative group, citing differences with her values at UK, Scottish and Association level, and served out the remainder of the council term as an independent, reducing the joint administration to a minority for its final four months.

2022-2027

At the 2022 council election, the Conservative group fell back to 3 seats, the SNP and Labour increasing their representation to 8 and 4 respectively. The LibDems stayed on 6, although former Depute Provost Gary Pews, who had succeeded the Conservative's Alan Brown as Provost in December 2022, lost his seat.

On 19 May 2022 a new SNP administration took office, with Cllr Gordan Low elected as Leader and Cllr Calum Smith appointed as Depute. Cllr Gillian Renwick was appointed as the first SNP Provost of East Dunbartonshire, and the first to represent a Kirkintilloch seat. Labour's Cllr Colette McDiarmid was elected as Depute Provost.

Party Representation

Wards

Since 2007, the council (as with all others in Scotland) has been elected using multi-member wards, each returning three councillors using a single transferable vote system of proportional representation. Initially this retained the number of councillors at 24 following on from the same number of single-member wards in previous elections, divided equally across eight wards. However, a national boundary and population review prior to the 2017 Scottish local elections led to the number of East Dunbartonshire wards being reduced to seven and the number of councillors being reduced to 22. These current wards are:Council Area East Dunbartonshire
Scottish Government Statistics. Retrieved 21 April 2022

Council Leadership

Provosts

Depute Provosts

Council Leaders

Co-Leaders

Depute Council Leaders

Group Leaders

Depute Group Leaders

Independents

Chief Executives

Towns and villages

* Auchenhowie
* Auchinairn
* Auchinreoch
* Baldernock
* Balmore
* Bardowie
* Bearsden
* Birdston
* Bishopbriggs
* Cadder
* Clachan of Campsie
* Kirkintilloch
* Lennoxtown
* Lenzie
* Woodilee Village
* Milngavie
* Milton of Campsie
* Torrance
* Twechar
* Waterside

Places of interest

* Campsie Fells
* West Highland Way
* Forth and Clyde Canal
* Antonine Wall
* Mugdock Country Park
* Milngavie water treatment works
* River Kelvin
* Lillie Art Gallery
* Auld Kirk Museum
* Huntershill Village
* The Fort Theatre
* The Turret Theatre
* The Gadloch

File:Huntershill Village.gif, Huntershill Village
File:Thomas Muir - schottischer Volksfreund.jpg, Thomas Muir
File:Thomas-muir-cairn.jpg, Thomas Muir Cairn - Erected by John SL Watson and unveiled by East Dunbartonshire's Provost John Dempsey (1997)
File:Martyrs_gate.jpg, Scottish Political Martyrs Gate - Erected by John SL Watson and unveiled by East Dunbartonshire's Provost John Dempsey (1997)
File:Miners-of-the-world-memorial-hutch.JPG, Miners of the world memorial hutch - created by John SL Watson and unveiled by leader of East Dunbartsonshire Council John Morrison (2003)
File:Huntershill-village-finger-post-old-glasgow-stirling-road.jpg, Finger Post marking the Old Glasgow-Stirling postal road
File:Huntershill-Village-mile-stone.gif, Huntershill Village Mile Stone
File:Southwest view across Gadloch - geograph.org.uk - 1476149.jpg, Southwest view across Gadloch Towards the distant Red Road Flats.

Education

Secondary schools

Closed schools

Bishopbriggs High School

Thomas Muir High School

Auchinairn Primary School

Gask House Primary School

Lenzie Primary School

Lenzie Moss Primary School

St Agatha's Primary School

St Flannan's Primary School

St Joseph's Primary School

Woodhill Primary School

Primary schools

References

External links

*

East Dunbartonshire Council report prepared for the Scottish Government Accounts Commission

Huntershill Village website

{{Authority control

Council areas of Scotland