Argyll and Bute Council 2022

Argyll and Bute is a bit Frankenstein’s monster, if I’m being honest with you. The core of this council area is (most of) the historic county of Argyll, a vast stretch of rural and island Scotland centred on Lochgilphead but with the main population centre at Oban. It also includes the island of Bute, drawn from what was Buteshire. Together, these formed the Argyll and Bute district of the Strathclyde region under the previous structures, bolting a big chunk of the geographical highlands onto Glasgow. When boundaries were redrawn for unitary councils in the 90’s, the Helensburgh and Lomond portion of Dunbartonshire was drawn in, so it was a bit of the Central Belt in the position of “odd, ill-fitting appendage”. 

The bulk of this area was Conservative throughout much of the 20^th century, though the SNP won the Argyll seat in both of the 1974 elections. Starting in the late 80’s, in line with the rest of the Highlands, it became a Lib Dem seat. In 2007 the SNP relieved them of the Holyrood equivalent, though they’d have to wait until 2015 to complete the set in both parliaments. Helensburgh and Lomond remain tied to Dumbarton for the Scottish Parliament, and thus have one of just two remaining Labour constituency MSPs.

In the old district, Independents were consistently dominant, winning a majority of seats at every election, a trend that continued for all FPTP elections in the current council. Throughout that period the SNP and Conservatives both tended to have a handful of councillors and Labour one or two. In the later years, the Lib Dems also grew into a substantial group, particularly by 2003 when they outnumbered all other party-affiliated councillors.